Research has shown that feline intelligence includes the ability to acquire new behavior that applies knowledge to new situations, communicating needs and desires within a social group, and responding to training.
This exchange of sensory information allows the brain to construct a complex perception of the real world and to react to and manipulate its environment.
[22] The thalamus of the cat[23][24] includes a hypothalamus,[25] an epithalamus, a lateral geniculate nucleus,[26] and additional secondary nuclear structures.
[35] Grouse et al. (1979) ascertained the neuroplasticity of kittens' brains, with respect to control of visual stimulus correlated with changes in RNA structures.
[36] In a later study, it was found that cats possess visual-recognition memory,[37][38] and have flexibility of cerebral encoding from visual information.
[39] A cognitive support diet for felines is a food that is formulated with the aim of improving mental processes like attention, short and long-term memory, learning, and problem solving.
[41] AA is required in cat diets, as felines convert insignificant amounts of it from linoleic acid due to the limited enzyme delta-6 desaturase.
[46] Supplementation is part of therapy for cats with seizures and feline cognitive dysfunction, despite this treatment being mostly based on anecdotal evidence and research done on dogs.
For human infants, tests involving multiple invisible displacements of an object are used to assess the beginning of mental representation in the sixth and last stage of sensorimotor intelligence.
[50][51] In wild cats, such as lions, selective pressures have demonstrated that these animals exhibit extensive long-term memory in relation to problem-solving for at least seven months after solution.
Cats possess impressive long-term memory capabilities, retaining recollections of events and locations for a decade or longer.
[53] This ability to adapt their memories of past environments throughout their life enables cats to easily adjust to their current surroundings.
Playing, in fact, constitutes more than fun for a kitten, for it is essential for ranking social order, building hunting skills, and for generally exercising for the adult roles.
Simply by watching their owners, and mirroring their actions, cats are capable of learning human-like behaviors like opening doors and turning off lights.
[69][70] This is as a consequence of both domestication practises and the activity of breeding, so that the species has undergone genetic evolutionary change due to human selection.
[71] Cats' intelligence may have increased during their semi-domestication: urban living may have provided an enriched and stimulating environment requiring novel adaptive behaviours.