Cats and dogs are the most common pets in our daily lives. Data from the "Pet Industry White Paper" over the years show that the top two pets in urban areas in my country are cats and dogs. It can be seen that cats and dogs How high is the status of dogs in people's hearts.

Who is smarter, cats or dogs? This is a very hot topic in the pet circle, and there are many supporters of both parties.

Cats and dogs are two pets with very different personalities. Cats give people the impression of being cold and unfriendly to people; dogs, on the other hand, are very enthusiastic in daily life and wish they could stick to the "shit shoveling officer" 24 hours a day. "Aside.

People who like cats think cats are smarter, while people who like dogs think dogs are smarter. In daily life, dogs often give people a "stupid haha" feeling, while cats appear relatively smart.

In addition, in the fight between cats and dogs, dogs obviously have an absolute advantage in size, but they often suffer in front of cats. Cats take advantage of their own bodies to trick dogs around, which seems to indicate that cats are smarter than dogs.

In rural areas, there is also a saying of "big stupid dog", but almost never heard of "big stupid cat", so are cats really smarter than dogs?

Early methods of measuring IQ that were full of loopholes

Wanting to know who has a higher IQ, cats or dogs, is not only interesting to the pet circle, but also to the scientific community. A researcher once conducted an experiment in which people brought some opaque cups and placed them on the ground. Only one cup had food under it, and the others were empty cups.

Then the researchers found some cats and dogs and conducted multiple experiments. They found that most of the dogs could successfully obtain the food in the cup through the researcher's gestures. However, most of the cats were not very cooperative. Not only did they ignore the researchers, they simply lay down to rest or play alone.

Later, people considered that cats and dogs have different personalities and are not as interactive as dogs in terms of social interactions. So the researchers moved the experimental site to the cat owner’s home and found that the cats became much more cooperative, and most cats could also Human gestures, get corresponding food.

After the entire experiment, although cats and dogs have very different personalities, they can both understand human gestures and act accordingly. Judging from the experimental results, cats and dogs seem to be equally smart. But is that really the case? Obviously not. The entire experiment is full of loopholes.

For example, if you ask a graduate student and a primary school student to do first-grade math problems together, and they both get perfect scores, can you say that their knowledge reserves are the same? Are they equally smart? Obviously not.

If there is no experimental measurement methodReaching the corresponding threshold is very confusing. For example, the famous "mirror experiment" that measures animal IQ. Can you say that the animals that pass the "mirror experiment" have the same IQ, and the animals that fail the "mirror experiment" have the same IQ?< /p>

Continuously improving methods of measuring animal IQ

The methods and standards for measuring animal IQ are not static. On the contrary, they change at any time. Maybe one day the scientific community will make new discoveries that overturn the previously established structures and standards.

Through some behavioral experiments, this unreliable method of measuring IQ was gradually eliminated. Later, some scientists proposed that the size and structural complexity of the brain should be used as a criterion for measuring IQ. At a certain period, it was recognized by most people.

In fact, many corresponding examples can be found in life. For example, animal behavior experts at the University of Wyoming have found that carnivores with larger brain sizes will show stronger adaptability when facing complex environments and be more able to deal with difficulties more calmly.

Later, as science progressed again, the method of measuring brain size was gradually eliminated, and people accordingly proposed a method of counting the number of neurons.

Scientists believe that neurons are the basic unit for animals to process information. The greater the number, the stronger the ability to process information. In other words, the cognitive ability is stronger, which is, as the saying goes, smarter.

How to understand it? We might as well imagine each neuron as an individual. One person's ability is limited. When 10 people are added together, the ability is doubled. 1,000 people can solve various problems that cannot be solved by one person.

At present, measuring the number of neurons is the most effective method recognized by the scientific community. Of course, this method cannot be said to be 100% accurate. Will it be overturned in the future? But at least for now, it has not In a more scientific way than that.

The number of neurons in a dog’s brain far exceeds that of a cat

The number of neurons in a brain of the same size can also vary widely. But here comes the problem. Neurons are not like peanuts, which can be counted one by one. How to calculate the number of neurons in the brain?

Currently, a more effective method is to first separate suspended nuclei from neurons, then calculate the number of suspended nuclei per unit volume, and finally estimate the number of neurons based on the number of suspended nuclei.

Researchers from six countries including the United States and Denmark formed a team. They calculated the number of neurons in the brains of cats, dogs and other animals, and published the results in the journal "Frontiers of Neuroanatomy".

Researchers found that the average number of neurons in the cerebral cortex of dogs is 528 million, and the average number of neurons in the golden retriever is 528 million.The number of species is higher, 627 million, while cats only have 250 million.

Judging from the experimental results, the number of neurons in the cerebral cortex of dogs is similar to that of lions and other animals. Some dogs that are recognized as smarter, such as golden retrievers, even have more neurons in the cerebral cortex than lions. The number of neurons in the cerebral cortex of cats is similar to that of animals such as brown bears, but much lower than that of dogs.

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Since currently, measuring the number of neurons is the most effective way to measure the intelligence of animals, then judging from the experimental results, does it mean that dogs are smarter than cats? The answer is yes.

Current research has found that the number of neurons in the human cerebral cortex is 16 billion, while that of chimpanzees is 6-7 billion. Chimpanzees are indeed smarter, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they have reached the IQ of human children.

The answer to who is smarter, cats or dogs, is obvious, and it may subvert many people’s perceptions. After all, in life, cats give people the impression of being smarter. But quantitative data shows that dogs are indeed smarter.

It is not difficult to understand. We have observed that in some work that requires animals to participate, dogs are basically the ones who appear, such as sniffer dogs, guide dogs, military police dogs, etc.

In addition to factors such as dogs being more loyal and able to interact better with people, their "high IQ" is also inseparable from factors such as their ability to read human signals, concentration, adaptability to the outside world, cooperation, etc. All need to be based on "high IQ".