Inside a dog’s furry head are millions of neurons firing away, passing chemicals to one another and generating thoughts. We may guess at what our canine pals are thinking about: food, a walk, their loving owners.
But for all the time humans spend interacting with dogs, their thoughts largely elude us, and it’s easy to see why: dogs can’t speak their minds (at least in any language we know). But we still are curious about our best bud’s mindset, and scientists have devised creative methods to get into their heads. While our grasp of canine cognition may never approach what we know of the human psyche, the latest research has yielded tantalizing nuggets about the inner lives of dogs.
Man’s Best Friend…or Codependent?
The age-old question of who is smarter, cats or dogs, was purportedly answered last year when scientists counted the neurons in the brains of both species, along with a few others. The authors proposed that the number of neurons in the cerebral cortex is a good proxy for how “cognitively capable” a given species is. Dog lovers rejoiced as dogs were deemed the brighter of the pair. But Barnard College dog cognition expert Alexandra Horowitz says comparing intelligence across species is illogical.
