Canine Einsteins: Dogs Smarter Than Cats, Study Says

NASHVILLE, TN -- Sorry, cat people who have been insisting for centuries that their feline friends are smarter than dogs. Science has proven you wrong and settled this crucial dinner-table debate once and for all.

A new study led by Vanderbilt University researcher and renowned neurologist Suzana Herculano-Houzel discovered that dogs have 530 million cortical neurons -- cells in the part of the brain responsible for thinking, planning and other complex behaviors -- and that cats have just 250 million.

"Whatever species has the most neurons in the cerebral cortex is therefore expected to be capable of more complex and flexible behavior," said Herculano-Houzel told ABC News. "We humans have twice the cortical neurons that gorillas have; dogs, as we found out, have about twice the cortical neurons that cats have."

The study, published in the journal Frontiers In Neuroanatomy is part of a larger effort to determine if neuron density is an indicator of intelligence.

Cat fanciers, though, should not be discouraged. Despite a much smaller brain overall, felines have about the same number of cortical neurons as brown bears. Dogs match-up best with lions and raccoons. Raccoons, the notorious bandits that serve as Tennessee's state animal and the bane of garbage-can owners everywhere, have the same neuron density as primates.

Humans have the highest number of neurons of any animal by far at about 16 billion while orangutans and gorillas have about eight to nine billion neurons. Chimpanzees have six to seven billion neurons. Among non-primates, the elephant is the tops with 5.6 billion cortical neurons.

The research included scientists from Virginia, California, Brazil, Denmark and South Africa.

Photo by J.R. Lind, Patch staff