Hey Kitty! Yes, you. A new study suggests household cats can respond to the sound of their own names.

No surprise to you or most cat owners, right? But Japanese scientists said Thursday that theyB次元官网网址檝e provided the first experimental evidence that cats can distinguish between words that we people say.

So youB次元官网网址檙e kind of like dogs, whose communication with people has been studied a lot more, and whoB次元官网网址檝e been shown to recognize hundreds of words if theyB次元官网网址檙e highly trained. Sorry if the comparison offends you, Kitty.

Atsuko Saito of Sophia University in Tokyo says thereB次元官网网址檚 no evidence cats actually attach meaning to our words, not even their own names. Instead, theyB次元官网网址檝e learned that when they hear their names they often get rewards like food or play, or something bad like a trip to the vet. And they hear their names a lot. So the sound of it becomes special, even if they donB次元官网网址檛 really understand it refers to their identity.

Saito and colleagues describe the results of their research in the journal Scientific Reports. In four experiments with 16 to 34 animals, each cat heard a recording of its ownerB次元官网网址檚 voice, or another personB次元官网网址檚 voice, that slowly recited a list of four nouns or other catB次元官网网址檚 names, followed by the catB次元官网网址檚 own name.

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Many cats initially reacted B次元官网网址� such as by moving their heads, ears or tails B次元官网网址� but gradually lost interest as the words were read. The crucial question was whether theyB次元官网网址檇 respond more to their name.

Sure enough, on average, these cats perked up when they heard their own name.

Kristyn Vitale, who studies cat behaviour and the cat-human bond at Oregon State University in Corvallis but didnB次元官网网址檛 participate in the new work, said the results B次元官网网址渕ake complete sense to me.B次元官网网址�

Vitale, who said she has trained cats to respond to verbal commands, agreed that the new results donB次元官网网址檛 mean that cats assign a sense of self to their names. ItB次元官网网址檚 more like being trained to recognize a sound, she said.

Monique Udell, who also studies animal behaviour at Oregon State, said the study shows B次元官网网址渃ats are paying attention to you, what you say and what you do, and theyB次元官网网址檙e learning from it.B次元官网网址�

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Malcolm Ritter, The Associated Press

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