People tend to rate their cat’s intelligence by how much their pet interacts with them. Cats deemed smart are often those who spend time connecting with their people. But it may not just be a perception on our part.
Research suggests that physical activity, stress reduction, and brain exercises — all things you should be encouraging your cat to engage in by interacting with him and training him — can increase the number of neurons in the brain. The process is called neurogenesis.
It’s not known with certainty that neurogenesis occurs in cats. But, says Catnip editor-in-chief John Berg, DVM, “it seems logical that it would.”
