The science of cats: why they are so fascinating to biology and neuroscience

In the dim light of his room, the boy watches his cat Gauss sleep. The cat's chest rises and falls with a calmness that seems impossible in a world that never stops.

Think about how it moves when it wakes up: silent, flawless, reacting before things even happen. Nothing seems improvised. Everything seems to follow rules that humans have forgotten.

He wonders how it's possible to live like this, without haste or anxiety. The cat doesn't run from the world; he understands it and flows through it.

And then a thought dawns on him: perhaps cats aren't just adorable. Perhaps they are creatures designed for perfection.

How do we explain what this child is thinking?

Indeed, cats are truly fascinating animals from a scientific point of view, seemingly defying physical, biological and chemical laws, although what they really do is take full advantage of them.

We'll tell you about it.

Sensory abilities of cats

Night vision and motion detection

A cat's eyes are optimized for hunting in low light. Their retinas are dominated by rods, cells specialized in detecting faint light and movement. They also possess a structure called the tapetum lucidum, a reflective layer located behind the retina that reflects unabsorbed photons, giving them a second chance to be detected. This is why cats' eyes shine in the dark and why they need up to six times less light than we do to see.

The price of this sensitivity is that they are less able to distinguish red and pink, but in return they detect minute movements. An insect moving by millimeters is as obvious to them as a car crossing the street.

Directional hearing and ultrasound

Each cat's ear has 32 independent muscles (humans have 6).

This allows them to rotate, tilt, and focus their ears independently, like biological satellite dishes. Thanks to this mobility and the shape of their inner ear, they can triangulate the exact position of a sound in milliseconds.

Furthermore, they can hear frequencies up to 65 kHz (humans can only hear up to 20 kHz), well above the human hearing limit. Rodents and many small prey animals emit ultrasonic squeaks that are inaudible to us, but to a cat, they are a bright signal in the dark.

Vibration detection

The pads of a cat's paws contain highly sensitive mechanoreceptors that detect minute vibrations in the ground. This allows them to perceive footsteps, moving walls, seismic tremors, or even the movement of other animals before any audible sound is heard. When a cat seems to be staring into space, it is often reading the vibrational language of its surroundings.

Jacobson's chemical and organ of smell

In addition to their conventional sense of smell, cats have an extra system: the vomeronasal organ, or Jacobson's organ, located in the roof of the mouth. When a cat opens its mouth and seems to make a strange face, it is actually inhaling air into this organ to analyze pheromones and chemical signals.

Thanks to it they detect:

• Emotional states
• Marked territories
• Identity of other animals
• Reproductive availability

It's a way of seeing social information that is completely invisible to us.

Orientation and navigation: the cat's internal GPS

Cats don't just know where they are. They know how space is oriented, thanks to their magnetoreception ability.

The retina of a cat contains proteins called cryptochromes that react to the Earth's magnetic field. When light strikes them, they change their chemical state depending on the orientation of the magnetic field, generating a signal that the brain can interpret.

That means that north and south are not abstract concepts for a cat: they are part of its internal visual perception.

That's why, in calm conditions and with a stable magnetic field, many cats spontaneously align themselves on a north-south axis when they defecate, rest, or relax. It's not a ritual; it's a consequence of how their nervous system organizes itself in space.

In 2013, a study published in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A analyzed more than 70 cats and hundreds of urination and defecation events.

Result: When the Earth's magnetic field was stable, the cats aligned themselves significantly in a north-south direction.

When the field was disturbed by solar storms… the effect disappeared.

Three-dimensional spatial memory

The cat's hippocampus, the brain structure responsible for navigation and spatial memory, is proportionally much larger than in other animals. They don't just memorize positions on the ground, but also heights, vertical routes, jumps, and trajectories. A house for them isn't a floor plan; it's a navigable, three-dimensional structure.

That explains why they never get lost within their territory and why they can return home even after traveling for miles.

Neurological abilities of cats

A cat's brain isn't designed for obedience or complex social life like ours. It's designed for one thing: to process the world with speed, precision, and energy efficiency. And that makes it a surprisingly sophisticated neurological machine.

A brain optimized for hunting

A cat's cortical structure is more similar to a human's than a dog's. Its visual cortex, amygdala (emotions), and hippocampus (spatial memory) are highly developed. This allows them to construct a mental model of their environment where every distance, height, and threat is calculated almost automatically. A cat doesn't measure a jump; its brain solves it like an equation in milliseconds.

Ultrafast reflexes

Cats react in just 20–30 milliseconds, about ten times faster than a human. This is because the nerve pathway connecting the retina to the thalamus and motor cortex is very short and direct. Much of the processing occurs before the information reaches conscious awareness, allowing the body to move before the cat even thinks it needs to move. The cat is the vertebrate animal with the fastest reaction time in the world. That's why in videos of them fighting snakes, it's impossible for the snakes to catch them.

Prediction of movement

The feline brain doesn't just detect movement: it predicts it. Its visual cortex calculates the speed and trajectory of an object to anticipate where it will be. That's why a cat catches prey at the point where it's going to pass, not where it is. It's a real-time physics system.

Three-dimensional spatial memory

Because a cat's hippocampus is proportionally large, it doesn't just store places on a plane, but three-dimensional maps with heights, vertical routes, and jump points. For a cat, a bookshelf, a table, and a ledge form a single, continuous path. That's why it never forgets a hiding place or falls from the same spot twice.

Observational learning

Although it may not seem like it, cats can learn by watching. They use imitation neural networks to copy actions they observe in other cats or humans. If your cat sees you open a door several times, its brain builds the pattern and tries to reproduce it.

Efficient emotional regulation

A cat's autonomic nervous system alternates very precisely between sympathetic (action) and parasympathetic (rest) modes. This prevents them from becoming trapped in chronic stress. That's why they can go from hunting to deep sleep in seconds without accumulating anxiety.

Empathy based on physiological signals

Cats detect changes in your voice, posture, and movement patterns through their sensory cortex and amygdala. They don't interpret emotions as concepts, but they do recognize body language patterns of stress or calmness and adjust their behavior accordingly. That's why cats sometimes come to offer affection when you're feeling down or sick.

Blocking pain under stress

In extreme situations, a cat's brain releases endorphins and catecholamines that reduce the perception of pain. This allows an injured animal to continue fleeing or fighting. It is a neurochemical survival mechanism.

A brain that never completely shuts down

Cats spend much of their sleep in REM sleep, the same phase in which we dream. During this phase, their brain simulates movement, hunting, and emotional scenarios. While they sleep, their nervous system continues to train.

Perception of time

Cats don't look at clocks, but their hypothalamus and circadian rhythms register patterns of light, food, and activity. This allows them to anticipate events with surprising accuracy. For them, time isn't a number: it's a physiological sensation.

Overall, the cat's brain doesn't seek comfort. It seeks absolute efficiency.
Less noise. Less doubt. More action when it matters and more rest when it doesn't.

They are not less social, they are more sophisticated

Cats do form attachments, but not in a childlike way like dogs. Their oxytocin levels rise when:

• He looks at you slowly
• Sleep with you
• It headbutts you.

That's feline love in their neurochemical language.

Metabolic abilities of cats

They are toxic to your immune system (and that's a good thing)

Exposure to cats during childhood reduces the risk of:

• Asthma
• Allergies
• Autoimmune diseases

Why? Because they train your immune system not to become paranoid. Living with cats helps prevent the human immune system from becoming hyperreactive to harmless stimuli.

Your saliva is an antibacterial laboratory

Cat saliva contains:

• Lysozymes
• Peroxidases
• Antimicrobial peptides

This makes their wounds less prone to infection and allows them to cleanse better than we do.

metabolic stealth mode

Cats can drastically reduce their energy expenditure when they are still, without losing reflexes or reaction time. Their metabolism enters a state of extreme conservation, but their reflexes remain intact.

That allows them to go from being asleep to jumping in a fraction of a second, like a missile on standby.

Therapeutic purr

A cat's purr vibrates between 25 and 150 Hz, a range that is used in medicine for:

• Heal bones
• Repair tissues
• Reduce inflammation

Cats self-medicate by vibrating. They purr when they are happy, when they are hurt, and in many cases, when they are dying.

Purring also regulates their own nervous system, helping them to remain stable even in situations of stress or pain.

Musculoskeletal abilities of cats

Diagonal gait: walking silently like Boston Dynamics robots

Cats use a diagonal gait: the hind paw steps exactly where the front paw stepped. This reduces vibrations, noise, and missteps. This pattern is controlled by the cerebellum, the part of the brain that coordinates fine motor skills. That's why they can move along a railing or the back of a sofa as if following an invisible line, moving with absolute stealth.

Hyperflexible spine

A cat's vertebrae are connected by highly elastic intervertebral discs and long, powerful muscles. This allows the torso to stretch and compress like a spring. During a jump, the spine stores elastic energy and releases it at takeoff, increasing power without expending more muscular energy.

Righting reflex

When a cat falls, its vestibular system (in the inner ear) detects the orientation of its head. From there, the brain coordinates the rotation of the neck, torso, and legs so that the body rotates in the air without violating the laws of physics. It doesn't need an external push: it redistributes its own angular momentum. That's why it almost always lands on its feet.

Support sensors on the legs

The pads of the feet contain pressure and texture receptors that inform the brain about the stability of the ground before the weight is placed upon it. Every step is a calculation. That's why they step so precisely and rarely slip.

Synchronized breathing

During hunting or stealth, cats reduce the depth of their breathing and synchronize it with the movement of their paws. This decreases chest movement and noise. The result is near-silent movement, controlled by the autonomic nervous system.

Biological Parkour

This entire integrated system allows cats to run, stop, turn, jump, and land with an efficiency reminiscent of an elite athlete. They don't improvise: their bodies execute a physical model of the world in real time.

Everyday things that can kill a cat

A cat may be a masterpiece of evolution, but its biology also has dangerous blind spots. Some compounds that are harmless to humans are lethal to cats because their livers cannot metabolize them properly.

The most well-known example is paracetamol. In cats, even a minimal dose destroys red blood cells and causes fulminant liver failure. There is no safe dose. A single tablet can be fatal.

Chocolate is another silent enemy. It contains theobromine and caffeine, two stimulants that the feline nervous system cannot eliminate. They cause arrhythmias, seizures, and respiratory collapse.

Even seemingly harmless foods and products can be dangerous, such as:

• Onions and garlic (damage red blood cells)
• Alcohol
• Human antidepressants and analgesics
• Lilies and some ornamental plants
• Cleaning products and essential oils

The paradox is brutal: They can detect magnetic fields and move like a ninja, but a little chocolate can be more dangerous than a predator.

Why is a cat's liver so different from a human's?

The liver is the body's chemical laboratory. It is the organ responsible for transforming foreign substances into compounds that can be eliminated without causing harm. In humans, this process depends largely on a family of enzymes called glucuronyl transferases.

Cats, however, have this system incomplete.

This means they cannot properly perform glucuronidation, a biochemical reaction essential for neutralizing many drugs and toxins. When a substance like paracetamol enters your body, it doesn't become harmless: it is converted into highly toxic metabolites that severely damage the liver and destroy red blood cells.

In other words, the cat's body doesn't know how to "turn off" those molecules. It's the price of an extremely specialized biology, optimized for a carnivorous diet and a predatory lifestyle.

Final reflection

Cats are not simply agile or intelligent animals. They are precision predators, designed by evolution to move silently, see in the dark, anticipate movement, and react before danger even exists. Every muscle and every neuron works toward a single mission: to hunt with maximum efficiency.

Their bodies exist in a perfect balance between calm and explosive. They can go from absolute rest to lethal action in a fraction of a second. They waste no energy, no attention. They are biological machines optimized for survival.

And yet, even within the feline world, there is an extreme.

The African black-footed cat (Felis nigripes) is the deadliest predator of all cats. Despite its diminutive size, it has the highest hunting success rate in the feline kingdom, surpassing even lions and leopards. More than half of its attacks result in a kill.

It encapsulates the essence of feline design:
stealth, precision, and a brain that almost never fails.

Perhaps we are not the ones who take care of them.
Perhaps they are the most elegant experiment of evolution.