Are Dogs Brainier Than Cats? Yes, Says New Research Out Of Vanderbilt

[TexasTowelie]

Dogs have more cortical neurons, says a Vanderbilt researcher — but that doesn't necessarily mean they're smarter.
Reader Of The Pack via Flickr


The latest research from a Vanderbilt University neuroscientist has some potentially controversial findings, depending on your pet preference: Suzana Herculano-Houzel's team found that dogs have more neurons in their cerebral cortex than cats.

But does this mean dogs are smarter? Not necessarily.

First, the back story: Herculano-Houzel created a method of counting loose cells floating around in an animal's brain — "turning brains into soup," as she describes it. With this ability, she and other researchers started counting neurons across the animal kingdom — first in rats, then other rodents, then primates, now a whole slew of animals.

"If you consider that neurons are the basic information processing units of brains, then whoever has the most neurons should also have the most information processing capabilities," says Herculano-Houzel, whose team is publishing an article in the open access journal Frontiers in Neuroanatomy.

Humans, they found, are clearly superior, with about 16 billion neurons in the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for cognitive abilities. Her book, The Human Advantage: A New Understanding of How Our Brain Became Remarkable, delves into this topic.

Read more: http://nashvillepublicradio.org/post/are-dogs-brainier-cats-yes-says-new-research-out-vanderbilt#stream/0

The dog in the photo doesn't know what is coming to him. Felines rule!!!111!!!

[Rhiannon12866]

1. In my experience, I think it depends on the individual

[TexasTowelie]

2. It's a little bit too early to tell,

but this may end up as an epic thread provided that it survives the alert for it being divisive.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. I guess I'd better be prepared

To serve on another jury. I always get called for the ones with 100+ argumentative posts...

[msongs]

4. solitary animals vs pack animals. different wiring required nt

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. As a cat person, I will of course defend the stance that cats are smarter.

However, I have personally met several dogs who have an understanding of human language that is beyond amazing.

Cats might possibly have such understanding, but they sure as hell don't respond the same way.

I pretend to write science fiction, and I've occasionally thought of a story that would prove for once and all that cats are the true rulers of the galaxy.

[hibbing]

6. My cats are smarter than me n/t

[TexasTowelie]

7. Is this really you

or is this one of the cats typing instead?

[hibbing]

8. No comment

My
English
Often
Wonderful

[Midnight Writer]

9. Just an observation. In my home, cats and dogs and humans live together. The cats have it made.

They kill the mice, and they only do that because they want to. There are a lot of ways to measure intelligence. I would guess achieving a state where someone tends to your every need while you do whatever you feel like is a sign of superior smarts.

[TexasTowelie]

10. I agree.

Help me, my cat overlords are oppressing me and made me post this article.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. I remember another study a while back that showed cats have better smell and sound senses...

They tried using them for search and rescue, but found out that cats had no interest in telling us what they found.

[Duppers]

12. Brain size...

I "served" one most amazing Siamese. The stories I could tell about that him are unbelievable. He loved to ride. I've had 2 Siamese but Mr. Silver was far more intelligent. But you'd think the other one was attached to me via an umbilical cord. That girl was never 2' from me when I was home.

But on an intelligence scale, I must give the highest score to our first Lab who was spookily telepathic. She and Mr. Silver cat were best friends. Kellie girl (Duppers) was the love of my life. I felt as if I had lost a biological child when she was hit and killed; her death crushed both hubs and myself so. We were to blame since we had not taught her well about the far road where we thought she must have chased rabbits that fateful 3am. She was too used to our 15mph neighborhood streets but not that roadway. It's been 34 yrs and I still tear up when thinking of her.
(We've carefully taught our current Lab to be extremely street wise. When she hears a vehicle approaching on our walks, she heads for grass.)

And I don't have to tell anyone how smart our Border Collie was but she didn't seem to have quite the telepathic nack our 1st Lab did.

But how do you measure love? There is no doubt that both these critter species have that deep emotional feeling for us.

[Duppers]

13. Another thread & article on this...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/116134704

Cute graphic there.