Dog lovers, rejoice! A recent study confirms what we dog lovers already knew. Dogs are most definitely smarter than cats and there is scientific proof to back it up!
A team of researchers discovered that dogs possess twice as many neurons in their brains than cats. While dogs have more than 500,000 neurons, cats have half that number, around 200,000. The more neurons the animal has in its brain, the better its information is processed. Because dogs have twice as many neurons they have greater cognitive capabilities than cats.
The study, published by Vanderbilt University, took ten years to complete. Renowned neurologist Suzana Herculano-Houzel was the brainchild behind the research. She began by counting neurons, the nerve cell found in the brain that transmits messages. During her research she studied three different brains—one from a cat, one from a golden retriever and one from a mixed breed dog. Two brains were used to study neurons in dogs because of the size difference between the two different breeds.
The golden retriever brain was found to have more neurons than the brain of the striped hyena, the African lion and the brown brain despite the fact the brown bear has a cortex three times larger than the dog. It was then discovered that the size of the animal didn’t matter when it came to the intelligence of the animal. Animals that had brains of a similar size often had a completely different number of neurons within their brains.
Despite the size of the dogs used in the study, each brain was found to have the same number of neurons. Based on her research, Hurculano-Houzel determined that dogs have the same intelligence as raccoons and lions while cats have the intelligence of bears.
One final bit of information learned from this study: When animals had more neurons in their brains, they were better off mentally than their counterparts with fewer neurons.
This particular study only focused on carnivorous animals living on land. Brains from animals such as the ferret, mongoose, raccoon and lion were also analyzed through the research that was accepted this week for publication in the Journal Frontiers in Anatomy. Future research may soon include brains of marine animals as well.
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