A Study of Cats and Humans

Ever wonder what your cat is thinking?

Well, I truthfully cannot tell you what your cat is thinking, but I can tell you just a little about how it thinks.

Cats and humans share many similarities when it comes to the brain. Granted our brain is bigger (1,400 grams) and a cats brain is smaller (30 grams), but much of the thinking process is quite similar.

For many years researchers have been studying the thinking process of a cat and in the 1970s a study was under taken to see how cats processed visual information.

The visual cortex of the brain is more highly developed in humans, but cats with the help of their whiskers have fine sensory input, which allows them to navigate quite well, especially in the dark.

A cats nose brain (rhinencephalon) is much larger than a humans which makes them far more sensitive to smell than we are. Many cats that have naval cavity tumors or other problems with their nose will not eat due to the fact a cat eats only what smells good to them.

It is known that dogs have a great sense of smell and are used as drug sniffing dogs and for search and rescue missions. If cats were more cooperative their sense of smell would be a great asset to these programs also.

The limbic system which controls emotional behavior is a function of the brain shared both by cats and humans. Many people think cats are not emotional, but if the truth were known cats probably have the same emotions of anger, likes and dislikes that we do.

Cats also have memory and like humans and other mammals have two seahorse shaped hippocampi situated on either side of the brain. The hippocampus may be smaller in size than a humans, but trust me a cat remembers well and they do associate memories with people, places and things just like humans do.

Cats can also have addictions just as humans do. While people tend to overindulge in food, drugs or alcohol, cats can become addicted to catnip and stress related activities such as hair pulling (psychogenic alopecia.)

Cats can also suffer from some of the same diseases of the brain as humans do. The most common of tumors are meningiomas (usually benign) and lymphoma, epilepsy (usually caused by a tumor) and a form of dementia found in elderly cats or cats that have experienced a severe head injury.

It is said that cats are not very smart because they do not do tricks as dogs do or try to please their owners. As a cat parent I have to disagree, having lived with cats most of my life I find them extremely smart and truly believe we could learn a lot from them, if we only followed their examples.

Just think how much simpler your life would be if you followed your cats lifestyle.

If this article has been of benefit, please visit my web site and blog at http://www.cats-and-dogs-on-the-web.com

Cats that have Personality
Welcome to my fast cat feed for you to chew on for a moment, I hope you enjoy it.Having 2 wonderful cats for about 9 years now has been nothing less than entertaining and what you do not know is that they are off the street (indoor now) cats with hug...

The Best Definition of a Typical Cat
How many times have you heard that the typical cat is a predator? More times than you can imagine. But when you are trying to come up with the definition of a typical cat surely it is better to study the overall habits of a cat and come up with the b...

BARF Natural Diet-Is It The Healthiest Option For My Beloved Cat?
BARF diet also known as biologically appropriate raw food, bones and raw food and born again raw food is a diet program for felines. The foundation of this diet is base on the belief that bones and raw food are the closest form of food cat cats eat i...

Bird Flu, your Cat, and You
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, caused by the H5N1 virus,(commonly called bird flu)has been detected in cats and other felidae (e.g. leopards and tigers) from time to time since the start of the present poultryavian influenza epidemic in 2003.In 2...

Fat Cat Facts
Obese Meaning cats that are 20% or more, heavier than their ideal weight.Overweight - Meaning cats that are between 1-19% heavier than their ideal weight. It is estimated over 50% of the UKs cats are overweight. 20-30% of these are Obese. Cats betwe...

The Right Recipe for Teaching Tricks to Your Cat
Cats are very lovable animals. They make excellent pets. In fact, three out of ten households in the United States are known to have at least one cat as a pet. And because they love their cats so much, it was reported that the owners are willing to s...

Nutrition for an Aging Cat
All cats are created equal, right? Wrong. Senior cats have special dietary needs, different from adult cats and kittens. Their bodies require different things.Sometimes, you will have to supplement in order to provide them proper nutrition. Their ...

The Truth about Catnip
We have all heard the stories about cats gone wild, strung out on catnip, while my cat could care less about the stuff. Why is it then that some cats take one whiff of catnip and seem to defy gravity and other cats seem unaffected by its magic? Well...

The Benefits of Walking Your Cat
Aside from dogs, cats are the next best pets for the home. In fact, 34.7 million households in the United States own at least one cat.However, the benefits of owning a cat are not constrained to having them as mere pets because cats, like dogs, can b...

Getting Rid of Stray Cats: 5 Foolproof Tips
Stray and Feral CatsStray and feral cats are a huge problem in the United States. Strays are simply cats that have wandered off, but feral cats may have bred for a generation of more in the wild and know how to survive without the care of humans. The...

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 6:56 am and is filed under Laughing Cat . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.