Biomaterial Database

Domestic cats (Felis catus) discriminate their names from other words. 2019

Atsuko Saito, and Kazutaka Shinozuka, and Yuki Ito, and Toshikazu Hasegawa

Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan. atsaito@sophia.ac.jp.

Two of the most common nonhuman animals that interact with humans are domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) and cats (Felis catus). In contrast to dogs, the ability of domestic cats to communicate with humans has not been explored thoroughly. We used a habituation-dishabituation method to investigate whether domestic cats could discriminate human utterances, which consisted of cats' own names, general nouns, and other cohabiting cats' names. Cats from ordinary households and from a 'cat café' participated in the experiments. Among cats from ordinary households, cats habituated to the serial presentation of four different general nouns or four names of cohabiting cats showed a significant rebound in response to the subsequent presentation of their own names; these cats discriminated their own names from general nouns even when unfamiliar persons uttered them. These results indicate that cats are able to discriminate their own names from other words. There was no difference in discrimination of their own names from general nouns between cats from the cat café and household cats, but café cats did not discriminate their own names from other cohabiting cats' names. We conclude that cats can discriminate the content of human utterances based on phonemic differences.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D009275	Names	Personal names, given or surname, as cultural characteristics, as ethnological or religious patterns, as indications of the geographic distribution of families and inbreeding, etc. Analysis of isonymy, the quality of having the same or similar names, is useful in the study of population genetics. NAMES is used also for the history of names or name changes of corporate bodies, such as medical societies, universities, hospitals, government agencies, etc.	Isonymy,Isonymies,Name
D002415	Cats	The domestic cat, Felis catus, of the carnivore family FELIDAE, comprising over 30 different breeds. The domestic cat is descended primarily from the wild cat of Africa and extreme southwestern Asia. Though probably present in towns in Palestine as long ago as 7000 years, actual domestication occurred in Egypt about 4000 years ago. (From Walker's Mammals of the World, 6th ed, p801)	Felis catus,Felis domesticus,Domestic Cats,Felis domestica,Felis sylvestris catus,Cat,Cat, Domestic,Cats, Domestic,Domestic Cat
D004285	Dogs	The domestic dog, Canis familiaris, comprising about 400 breeds, of the carnivore family CANIDAE. They are worldwide in distribution and live in association with people. (Walker's Mammals of the World, 5th ed, p1065)	Canis familiaris,Dog
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D001307	Auditory Perception	The process whereby auditory stimuli are selected, organized, and interpreted by the organism.	Auditory Processing,Perception, Auditory,Processing, Auditory