More than 300 expressions! Cats are not as cool as you think

Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, November 1 (Reporter Liu Xia) According to a report by the American Fun Science website on October 31, a new study conducted by American scientists shows that cats are not as "cold" as people previously thought, and they can use nearly 300 facial expressions to communicate. The relevant paper was published in the latest issue of the journal "Behavioral Processes".

Scientists have conducted in-depth research on the facial expressions of dogs, chimpanzees and humans, and found that humans have 44 facial expressions, canines have 27, and chimpanzees have 357, but there is very little research on cat facial expressions. In the past year, Brittany Frokiewicz, an assistant professor of psychology at Lyon College in Arkansas, and her colleagues recorded 276 different facial expressions of 50 cats living in a cat cafe in Los Angeles.

Frokiewicz said there is too little literature on cats, and many studies only focus on the connection between cats and humans during the 10,000 years of domestication. In the cat cafe, they are able to record spontaneous interactions between cats and record their facial expressions.

According to the study, each cat expression included about four of 26 unique facial movements, including opening of the lips, dilation or contraction of pupils, blinking, licking of the nose and different positions of the ears. The researchers concluded that 45% of the feline expressions were friendly and 37% were aggressive.

Frokiewicz noted that more research is needed to understand exactly what these cats are "saying" to each other, but they hope animal shelters can use this research to better evaluate the cats in their care. They have already been contacted by a company looking to design an app that would allow people to record and decode cats' facial expressions.