Cats were faking it ... dogs are much smarter

Scientists settle age-old debate after finding man’s best friend has twice as many grey cells as its rival

THE ongoing debate about whether cats or dogs are more intelligent may have finally been solved by scientists.

For the first time, researchers have studied not just the size of animals’ brains, but the number of neurons in their cerebral cortex – the “little grey cells” associated with thinking, planning and complex behaviour which were revered by Hercule Poirot.

The results show that cats have just half the cortical neurons of the average golden retriever. Dogs have about 530million cortical neurons while cats have just 250million. Put into perspective, humans have around 16billion.

“I believe the absolute number of neurons an animal has, especially in the cerebral cortex, determines the richness of their internal mental state and their ability to predict what is about to happen in their environment based on past experience,” said Dr Suzana Herculano-houzel, associate pro- fessor of psychology and biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee. “I’m 100 per cent a dog person, but ... our findings mean to me that dogs have the biological capability of doing much more complex and flexible things with their lives than cats can.”

Scientists analysed the brains of ferrets, mongoose, raccoons, cats, dogs, hyenas, lions and brown bears, all members of the order carnivora. They found that many animals with the largest brains had the fewest neurons.

For example, the brain of a golden retriever has more neurons than a hyena, lion or brown bear, even though those animals have brains up to three times as large. In fact, the brown bear had a similar number of neurons to a cat, even though it has a brain which is 10 times as large, suggesting cats are as smart as bears but not as clever as dogs.

Celia Haddon, author of 100 Ways for a Cat to Train its Human, said cats may have fewer neurons than dogs because they are not as social. She said: “[Dogs are] descended from wolves that hunt in a pack and therefore need complex behaviours to co-operate with each other. Cats don’t have these behaviours because they hunt alone and can, and often do, live alone. Mind you, you could say that they are cleverer than dogs because they just eat cat food and don’t have to do anything in return. What’s so stupid about that?”

However Caroline Kisko, secretary of the Kennel Club said: “The majority of those who prefer dogs will likely say that they are intellectually superior to cats. Dogs thrive in many roles in society and they seem to have a biological ability to do much more than cats.”

The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroanatomy.