It turns out that cats track their owner's location in their head, even when they are out of sight. Scientists performed some experiments published in Plos One, showing that they mentally map out exactly where you are located based on the sounds you make.

This is yet another study confirming that cats are smarter than previously thought and that they really do care about their owners, further shattering the myths around this subject.

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Cats have extraordinary hearing abilities. Past research has shown that they are excellent at inferring social and physical presence based on sound. They use noise to recognize particular humans and to differentiate between human and feline emotional states.

Scientists at Kyoto and Sophia University decided to test whether cats create mental maps in their heads concerning the location of nearby humans based on where noises are coming from.

To do so, they put individual cats in a room with speakers. After a few minutes, the voice of their owner was played through one of the speakers calling out the cat's name. Subsequently, the voice recordings would be played again, only this time through a speaker on location further away, as if the owner suddenly teleported to another location.

The cats were taken aback when the familiar voice came from an unexpected position based on what they had already heard. This shows that cats use acoustic cues to spatially orient their invisible human partners, a cognitive function previously unknown in felines.

According to Saho Takagi, one of the researchers, the cats usually looked at the speaker. Their body language (which was also assessed by their owners) clearly showed astonishment.

Where did she go? - Image Credit: Maksim Safaniuk via Shutterstock / HDR tune by Universal-Sci

The team repeated the experiment, this time without the owner's voice but with the sound of other cats purring. Remarkably, this time the apparent teleportation did very little with the cats. In a third experiment, so-called 'non-social sounds were played from the speakers, i.e. sounds that are not tied to a person or animal. Again the cats didn't give flinch in this scenario.

Knowing that something remains in existence, even if it's out of sight (as the cats showed with their response), is known as object permanence. Humans develop object permanence when they are eight months old, and it's a test that researchers use to assess animal intelligence.

Human/cat relations

This study further debunks the notion that cats are non-social creatures. According to Takagi, cats have evolved to become more social animals.

Previously it has been observed that when cats heard their owners' voices, they expected to see their owners' faces. It has also been shown before that they develop a bond with their humans. This research extends on that foundation.

In other studies, cats have also shown that they can differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar human voices and that they can locate hidden objects. According to the scientists, it seems very well be plausible that cats are capable of to mentally mapping the location of people based on vocals.

The study also raises new questions. The research team found it intriguing that the reaction to humans was very distinct from the reaction to the purring of other cats. It looks like cats use a different type of communication for humans than they do for other cats. One of the things the researchers would still like to investigate is how far their understanding of human language goes, for example.

All in all, the house cat remains a mysterious creature in some ways. One thing is for sure, though; they always know where we are, even when they are not looking.

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