Hello Kitty: Can you communicate with your pet cat?

Bonding with cats takes nothing more than a few slow blinks, reveals a new study.

The study, titled ‘The role of cat eye narrowing movements in cat-human communication’, has been published in a journal called Scientific Reports. It says that humans can connect with cats by simply narrowing their eyes and blinking which generates something of a smile for a cat.

This ‘smile’, according to the authors, can make the owner more attractive to their feline.

As a part of the study, scientists noted down interactions shared by cats and humans and confirmed that the act of slow blinking – regardless if it’s a pet or not – can change their approach towards humans.

According to ScienceAlert, psychologist Karen McComb from the University of Sussex in the UK said, “As someone who has both studied animal behaviour and is a cat owner, it’s great to be able to show that cats and humans can communicate in this way.”

Let’s take a closer look at what the study found out.

How was the research conducted?

For the purpose of this study, two experiments were conducted.

In the first experiment, a total number of 21 cats from 14 different households were observed. Ten of these cats were male and 11 were female, with an estimated age of 0.45 to 16 years.

These cats were placed in an enclosed space with outdoor access after they had been living with their owners for a minimum of three months. The nature of the study didn’t allow the participation of partially blind or visually impaired cats or a cat with medical issues.

Once the cat was made comfortable in one spot, the owners were instructed to sit a metre away from them and slowly blink at them when the cats were looking at them.

The observations were filmed during the study where slow blinks were stimulated.

The eye movements of the cats were coded using a device known as ‘CatFACS’ which is an anatomically based system designed to measure facial actions based on their underlying muscle movements.

Meanwhile, the second experiment included 24 cats from eight different households. The difference this time was that the owners were absent from this examination and the blinking was done by researchers who had no prior contact with the cat.

The researchers applied a similar slow-blink process in this experiment too, but this time they also extended their hands toward the cat.

What did researchers find out?

The results of both experiments were quite promising. It was found that cats are more likely to slow-blink back at people when they have blinked slowly at them.

Moreover, as compared to the female cats, males showed a significant increase in the rate of half-blinks they made in an experimental condition. According to Nature, female cats did not show a strong effect of condition.

In the second experiment where the researchers also extended their hands, cats scored high in terms of their approach to humans after the slow blink stimulus presentation.

The study also found out that the age or the number of cats had no effect on the experiment.

At the same time, four cats out of the complete lot showed complete eye closures in the slow-blink condition.

The first author of the study, Dr Tasmin Humphrey, said in a statement, “In terms of why cats behave in this way, it could be argued that cats developed the slow blink behaviours because humans perceived slow blinking as positive. Cats may have learned that humans reward them for responding to slow blinking. It is also possible that slow blinking in cats began as a way to interrupt an unbroken stare, which is potentially threatening in social interaction.”

About the results, Dr McComb said, “This study is the first to experimentally investigate the role of slow blinking in cat-human communication. And it is something you can try yourself with your own cat at home, or with cats you meet in the street. It’s a great way of enhancing the bond you have with cats. Try narrowing your eyes at them as you would in a relaxed smile, followed by closing your eyes for a couple of seconds. You’ll find they respond in the same way themselves and you can start a sort of conversation.”

What else can cats do?

Communication is not all cats can do. They can also respond to you when you call out their name.

In 2019, a study, also published in Scientific Reports, a team of researchers found that domestic cats respond more strongly to their own names than to other words in a series.

The findings said, “The first experimental evidence showing cats’ ability to understand human verbal utterances.”

During the experiment, cat subjects zoned out when they heard neutral nouns. However, the cats perked back up with an ear twitch or head turn when their names were called out, even when the voice belonged to a stranger.

However, Mikel Delgado an animal behaviour expert from the University of California said that the study doesn’t prove that cats can actually remember or understand the concept of names. “It doesn’t mean that the cats understand that the word is a label for them — just that it is a sound that may predict food or cuddles or attention or something else.”

With inputs from agencies

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