Cat intelligence refers to a cat’s ability to solve problems, adapt to its environment, learn new behaviors, and communicate its needs. Structurally, a cat’s brain shares similarities with the human brain,[1] containing around 250 million neurons in the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for complex processing.[2] Cats displayneuroplasticity, allowing their brains to reorganize based on experiences. They have well-developed memory retaining information for a decade or longer. These memories are often intertwined with emotions, allowing cats to recall both positive and negative experiences associated with specific places.[3] While they excel inobservational learning and problem-solving, studies conclude that they struggle with understanding cause-and-effect relationships in the same way that humans do.[4][5][6]
The study of cat intelligence is mostly focused on domesticated cats. Living in urban environments has exposed them to challenges that require adaptive behaviors, contributing to cognitive development.[7] Selective breeding and genetic changes have further influenced their intelligence.[8][9]Kittens learn essential survival skills by observing their mothers, while adult cats refine their abilities throughtrial and error.
Early research on cat intelligence can be traced back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when psychologists such asEdward Thorndike used puzzle boxes to study animal learning. Thorndike’s experiments demonstrated that cats could learn to manipulate levers and latches through trial-and-error, thereby revealing their capacity for associative learning. Over time, more refined experiments began to examine additional facets of cognition, including spatial awareness, memory, and problem-solving strategies.[10]
In controlled experiments, cats demonstrated fully developed concepts ofobject permanence, indicating that their sensorimotor intelligence is complete. In contrast, human infants are tested with multiple invisible displacements of an object to assess the emergence of mental representation during the sixth and final stage ofsensorimotor intelligence. The cats’ search behavior in these tasks was consistent with their ability to represent an unsensed object and reflected fully developed sensorimotor intelligence.[11][12]
In 2009, an experiment was conducted in which cats could pull on a string to retrieve a treat located beneath a plastic screen. When presented with a single string, the cats easily obtained the treat; however, when multiple strings were provided—some of which were not connected to treats—the cats were unable to consistently choose the correct string. This finding led to the conclusion that cats do not understandcause and effect in the same way that humans do.[4][5][6]
In wild cats, such as lions, selective pressures have demonstrated that these animals exhibit extensive long-term memory in relation to problem-solving for at least seven months after solution.[13] However, relationships with humans, individual differences inintelligence, and age may all affect memory. Cats possess impressive long-term memory capabilities, retaining recollections of events and locations for a decade or longer. These memories are often intertwined with emotions, allowing cats to recall both positive and negative experiences associated with specific places.[3] This ability to adapt their memories of past environments throughout their life enables cats to easily adjust to their current surroundings.[14][15]
The period during which the cat is akitten is the time when the cat learns and memorizes survival skills, which are acquired through observation of their mothers and playing with other cats. Playing, in fact, constitutes more than fun for a kitten, for it is essential for ranking social order, building hunting skills, and for generally exercising for the adult roles.[16]
The older the cat, the more these changes can affect its memory. There have been no studies done on the memories of aging cats, but there is some speculation that, just like people,short-term memory is more affected by aging. In one test of where to find food, cats' short-term memory lasted about 16 hours.[17]
The domesticated cat’sbrain measures roughly five centimetres (2.0 in) in length and weighs between 25 and 30 grams (0.88–1.06 oz).[18][19] For a typical cat measuring about 60 centimetres (24 in) in length and weighing around 3.3 kilograms (7.3 lb), this amounts to approximately 0.91%[20] of its total body mass, compared to about 2.33% for an averagehuman. According to Jerison’s 1973 study on theencephalization quotient (EQ)—which classifies values above 1 as big-brained and below 1 as small-brained,[21] the domestic cat has an EQ value between 1 and 1.71, whereas human values fall between 7.44 and 7.8.[18][20]
The largest brains in thefamilyFelidae are those of thetigers in Java and Bali.[22] It is debated whether there exists a causal relationship between brain size and intelligence invertebrates. Most experiments involving the relevance of brain size to intelligence hinge on the assumption that complex behavior requires a complex (and therefore intelligent) brain; however, this connection has not been consistently demonstrated.[23][24][25][26][27]
The surface area of a cat'scerebral cortex is approximately 83 cm2 (13 in2); furthermore, a theoretical cat weighing 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) has acerebellum weighing 5.3 g (0.19 oz), 0.17% of the total weight.[28] According to researchers at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, the physical structure of the brains of humans and cats is very similar.[29] Humans and cats have similar lobes in theircerebral cortex.[30][31]
Analyses of cat brains have shown they are divided into many areas with specialized tasks that are vastly interconnected and share sensory information in a kind ofhub-and-spoke network, with a large number of specialized hubs and many alternative paths between them. This exchange of sensory information allows the brain to construct a complex perception of the real world and to react to and manipulate its environment.[38]
Grouseet al. (1979) ascertained theneuroplasticity of kittens' brains, with respect to control of visual stimulus correlated with changes inRNA structures.[52] In a later study, it was found that cats possessvisual-recognition memory,[53][54] and have flexibility of cerebralencoding from visual information.[55]
A cognitive support diet for felines is a food that is formulated with the aim of improving mental processes like attention, short and long-term memory, learning, and problem solving. There is currently no strong evidence that such diets are effective in improving cognitive function. Claims for cognitive support appear on a number of kitten formulations to help with brain development, as well as diets aimed at seniors to help prevent cognitive disorders. These diets typically focus on supplyingomega-3 fatty acids,omega-6 fatty acids,taurine, vitamins, and other supporting supplements that are considered to have positive effects on cognition.[citation needed]
The omega-3 fatty acids are a key nutrient in cognition for felines. They are essential for felines as they cannot be synthesized naturally and must be obtained from the diet.[56] Omega-3 fatty acids that support brain development and function arealpha-linolenic acid,docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) andeicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).[56] Fish oils, fish and other marine sources provide a very rich source of DHA and EPA.[56] Alpha-linolenic acid can be acquired from oils and seeds.[56]
Omega-6 fatty acids are also often included in feline cognition diets.[citation needed] The important omega-6 fatty acid that plays a role in brain support and cognition isarachidonic acid.[57] Arachidonic acid, or AA, is found in animal sources such as meat and eggs.[57] AA is required in cat diets, as felines convert insignificant amounts of it from linoleic acid due to the limited enzyme delta-6 desaturase.[58] Like DHA, arachidonic acid is often found in the brain tissues of cats and seems to have a supporting role in brain function.[57] In a 2000 study completed by Contreraset al., it was found that DHA and AA made up 20% of the fatty acids in the mammalian brain.[59] Arachidonic acid makes up high amounts in the membrane of most cells and has many pro-inflammatory actions.[58]
Taurine is an amino acid, which is essential in cat diets due to their low capacity to synthesize it. Taurine has the ability to cross theblood–brain barrier in the brain, it plays a role in many neurological functions, especially in the visual development.[60] Without taurine, felines can have an abnormal morphology in thecerebellum andvisual cortex.[60] When cats were fed a diet deficient in taurine, this led to a decrease in the concentration of taurine in the retina of the eye. This resulted in deterioration of the photoreceptors, followed by complete blindness.[61]
Choline is a water-soluble nutrient that prevents and improvesepilepsy andcognitive disorders.[62] Supplementation is part of therapy for cats withseizures andfeline cognitive dysfunction, despite this treatment being mostly based on anecdotal evidence and research done on dogs.[63] It is the precursor to nerve chemicals likedopamine andacetylcholine, making it important for proper functioning of the nervous system.[62]
Edward Thorndike conducted some key experiments on cats' learning capacity. In one of Thorndike's experiments, cats were placed in various boxes approximately 20 in × 15 in × 12 in (51 cm × 38 cm × 30 cm) with a door opened by pulling a weight attached to it. The cats were observed to free themselves from the boxes by "trial and error with accidental success".[64][65] Though cats did perform worse on occasion, Thorndike generally found that as cats continued the trials, the time taken to escape the boxes decreased in most cases.[66]
Thorndike considered the cat to follow thelaw of effect, which states that responses followed by satisfaction (i.e. a reward) become more likely responses to the same stimulus in the future.[65][64] Thorndike was generally skeptical of the presence of intelligence in cats, criticising sources of the contemporary writing of the sentience of animals as "partiality in deductions from facts and more especially in the choice of facts for investigation".[67]
An experiment was done to identify possibleobservational learning in kittens. Kittens that were able to observe their mothers performing an experimentally organised act were able to perform the same act sooner than kittens that had observed a non-related adult cat, and sooner than the ones who, being placed in trial and error conditions, observed no other cat performing the act.[68][69][70]
An experiment was done to study detour problem solving skills in companion cats and dogs using a transparent fence. If cats recognize both sides of the obstacle represent as an equally solvable task, they freely change their spatial approach to solve the task.[71]
According to several feline behaviorists and child psychologists, an adult cat's IQ is comparable to that of a two- to three-year-old child, since both species learn through imitating, observing, and experimenting.[72] Simply by watching their owners, and mirroring their actions, cats are capable of learning human-like behaviors like opening doors and turning off lights.[73]
Cat intelligence study is mostly from consideration of thedomesticated cat. The process of domestication has allowed for closer observation of cat behaviour and in the increased incidence of interspecies communication,[74][75] and the inherent plasticity of the cat's brain has become apparent as the number of studies in this have increased scientific insight.[citation needed]
Changes in the genetic structure of a number of cats have been identified.[8][9] This is as a consequence of both domestication practises and the activity of breeding, so that the species has undergone genetic evolutionary change due to human selection.[8][9] This human selection has been coupled with an initial, naturally occurring selective set of cats, possessing characteristics desirable for the sharing of human habitation and living inNeolithic urban environments.[76]
^abAnanthanarayanan, Rajagopal; Esser, Steven K.; Simon, Horst D.; Modha, Dharmendra S. (2009). "The cat is out of the bag: cortical simulations with 109 neurons, 1013 synapses".Proceedings of the Conference on High Performance Computing Networking, Storage and Analysis – SC '09. pp. 1–12.doi:10.1145/1654059.1654124.ISBN978-1-60558-744-8.S2CID6110450.
^Outhwaite, William (2006).The Blackwell dictionary of modern social thought (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. p. 257.ISBN978-1-4051-3456-9.
^Weiner, Irving B.; Craighead, W. Edward (2010).The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology. Vol. 4. John Wiley & Sons. p. 1857.
^Sorabji, Richard (1995).Animal Minds and Human Morals: The Origins of the Western Debate. Cornell University Press.ISBN978-0-8014-8298-4.[page needed]
^Allen, Colin (13 October 2010)."Animal Consciousness". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.).The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
^Nieuwenhuyis, Rudolf; ten Donkelaar, Hendrik Jan; Nicholson, Charles (1998).The Central Nervous System of Vertebrates.ISBN978-3-540-56013-5.[page needed]
^Beaulieu, Clermont; Colonnier, Marc (1989). "Number of neurons in individual laminae of areas 3B, 4?, and 6a? Of the cat cerebral cortex: A comparison with major visual areas".The Journal of Comparative Neurology.279 (2):228–34.doi:10.1002/cne.902790206.PMID2913067.S2CID85251210.
^Feig, Sherry; Harting, John K. (1998). "Corticocortical communication via the thalamus: Ultrastructural studies of corticothalamic projections from area 17 to the lateral posterior nucleus of the cat and inferior pulvinar nucleus of the owl monkey".The Journal of Comparative Neurology.395 (3):281–95.doi:10.1002/(SICI)1096-9861(19980808)395:3<281::AID-CNE2>3.0.CO;2-Z.PMID9596524.S2CID11629224.
^Huang, Chuong C; Lindsley, Donald B (1973). "Polysensory responses and sensory interaction in pulvinar and related postero-lateral thalamic nuclei in cat".Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology.34 (3):265–80.doi:10.1016/0013-4694(73)90254-X.PMID4129614.
^Fourment, A.; Hirsch, J.C. (1980). "Synaptic potentials in cat's lateral geniculate neurons during natural sleep with special reference to paradoxical sleep".Neuroscience Letters.16 (2):149–54.doi:10.1016/0304-3940(80)90335-3.PMID6302571.S2CID12172929.
^Adamec, R.E.; Stark-Adamec, C. (1983). "Partial kindling and emotional bias in the cat: Lasting aftereffects of partial kindling of the ventral hippocampus".Behavioral and Neural Biology.38 (2):205–22.doi:10.1016/S0163-1047(83)90212-1.PMID6314985.
^Grouse, Lawrence D.; Schrier, Bruce K.; Nelson, Phillip G. (1979). "Effect of visual experience on gene expression during the development of stimulus specificity in cat brain".Experimental Neurology.64 (2):354–64.doi:10.1016/0014-4886(79)90275-9.PMID428511.S2CID29837042.
^Okujav, Vazha; Natishvili, Teimuraz; Gogeshvili, Ketevan; Gurashvili, Thea; Chipashvili, Senera; Bagashvili, Tamila; Andronikashvili, George; Okujava, Natela (2009)."Visual Recognition Memory in Cats: Effects of Massed vs. Distributed Trials"(PDF).Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences.3 (2):168–72. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 6 September 2015.
^Fiset, Sylvain; Doré, François Y. (1996). "Spatial encoding in domestic cats (Felis catus)".Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes.22 (4):420–37.doi:10.1037/0097-7403.22.4.420.PMID8865610.
^abBiagi G, Moedenti A, Cocchi M (2004). "The role of dietary omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids in the nutrition of dogs and cat: A review".Progress in Nutrition.6 (2):1–13.
^abSturman JA, Lu P, Xu Y, Imaki H (1994). "Feline maternal taurine deficiency: Effects on visual cortex of the offspring. A morphometric and immunohistochemical study".Taurine in Health & Disease. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. Vol. 359. pp. 369–84.doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-1471-2_38.ISBN978-1-4899-1473-6.PMID7887277.
^abShawn., Messonnier (2012).Nutritional supplements for the veterinary practice : a pocket guide. American Animal Hospital Association. Lakewood, Colo.: AAHA Press.ISBN9781583261743.OCLC794670587.
^Shawn., Messonnier (2001).Natural health bible for dogs & cats : your A-Z guide to over 200 conditions, herbs, vitamins, and supplements (1st ed.). Roseville, Calif.: Prima.ISBN9780761526735.OCLC45320627.
^abD. Bernstein; L. A. Penner; A. Clarke-Stewart; E. J. Roy (October 2007).Psychology. Cengage Learning. p. 205.ISBN978-0-618-87407-1. Retrieved24 December 2011.
^Shajid Pyari, M.; Vékony, K.; Uccheddu, S.; Pongrácz, P. (2023). "Companion Cats Show No Effect of Trial-and-Error Learning Compared to Dogs in a Transparent-Obstacle Detour Task". Animals,13, 32.doi:10.3390/ani13010032.
Turner, Dennis C, and Patrick Bateson. "The Domestic Cat: The Biology of Its Behaviour"Cambridge University Press (1988)
Miles, R. C. (1958). "Learning in kittens with manipulatory, exploratory, and food incentives".Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology.51 (1):39–42.doi:10.1037/h0049255.PMID13513843.
Neville, Peter "Claws and Purrs" Sidgwick & Jackson (1992)
Neville, Peter "Do Cats Need Shrinks" Sidgwick & Jackson (1990)
Voith, VL (1981). "You, too, can teach a cat tricks (examples of shaping, second-order reinforcement, and constraints on learning)".Modern Veterinary Practice.62 (8):639–42.PMID7290076.
D.M.Fankhauserbiology.clc.uc.eduRemoval and study of the cat brain andCranial nerves of the catbiology.clc.uc.edu [Retrieved 2011-12-22] (images and instruction) for ananatomy and physiology class for thedissecting of the brain of a cat
