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 theysa国际传媒檝e provided the first experimental evidence that cats can distinguish between words that we people say.

So yousa国际传媒檙e kind of like dogs, whose communication with people has been studied a lot more, and whosa国际传媒檝e been shown to recognize hundreds of words if theysa国际传媒檙e highly trained. Sorry if the comparison offends you, Kitty.

Atsuko Saito of Sophia University in Tokyo says theresa国际传媒檚 no evidence cats actually attach meaning to our words, not even their own names. Instead, theysa国际传媒檝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 donsa国际传媒檛 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 ownersa国际传媒檚 voice, or another personsa国际传媒檚 voice, that slowly recited a list of four nouns or other catsa国际传媒檚 names, followed by the catsa国际传媒檚 own name.

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Many cats initially reacted sa国际传媒� such as by moving their heads, ears or tails sa国际传媒� but gradually lost interest as the words were read. The crucial question was whether theysa国际传媒檇 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 didnsa国际传媒檛 participate in the new work, said the results sa国际传媒渕ake complete sense to me.sa国际传媒�

Vitale, who said she has trained cats to respond to verbal commands, agreed that the new results donsa国际传媒檛 mean that cats assign a sense of self to their names. Itsa国际传媒檚 more like being trained to recognize a sound, she said.

Monique Udell, who also studies animal behaviour at Oregon State, said the study shows sa国际传媒渃ats are paying attention to you, what you say and what you do, and theysa国际传媒檙e learning from it.sa国际传媒�

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Malcolm Ritter, The Associated Press

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