New Study Finds That Dogs Have More Brain Power Than Cats

Dog people and cat people have long argued about which species is more intelligent. Scientists from Vanderbilt University believe that their latest research may settle the matter once and for all.

They compared the number of cortical neurons – the “little gray cells” associated with thinking, planning and complex behavior – in the brains of several carnivores. When it came to dogs and cats, the pups won in a landslide!

Their cortical neuron count was found to be more than double that of their feline counterparts. Humans have about 16 billion of these cells in their brains; dogs have about 530 million; and cats have 250 million.

“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,” Suzana Herculano-Houzel, the study’s lead author said.

Herculano-Houzel is an associate professor of psychology and biological sciences at Vanderbilt University. She developed the method of accurately measuring the number of neurons in the animals’ brains.

The researchers also analyzed the neuronal content of several other species’ brains including bears, hyenas, and lions. Studying these animals helped to prove that the number of cortical neurons is not simply higher in animals with larger brains.

Bears, for example, have about the same number of neurons as cats despite the fact that their brains are about ten

times larger

New Study Shows People Like Dogs More Than Humans

New Study Shows People Like Dogs More Than Humans

Humans love dogs more than their fellow man.

Two major studies showed that mankind has more empathy for pooches in dire circumstances than suffering people, according to a report in the Times of London.

Then a Northeastern University study showed that only a baby human could compete with man’s best friend.
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Students were shown fake newspaper clippings about a baseball-bat attack on a puppy, an adult dog, a year-old infant and a 30-year-old adult. They were asked questions to gauge their empathy and the adult finished last in sympathy.“Respondents were significantly less distressed when adult humans were victimized, in comparison with human babies, puppies and adult dogs,” according to Northeastern researchers. “Only relative to the infant victim did the adult dog receive lower scores of empathy.