It’s no coincidence that cats are cute: we’ve selectively bred them for generations to come for maximum cuteness. But that breeding has a downside: It has left some of our feline friends with permanent frowning faces that can’t show any emotions.
Notably, new research published in the journal in December Frontiers of Veterinary Science suggests that selective breeding for the ‘brachycephalic’ or flattened face type – think Persians and Himalayas – has impeded these cats’ ability to accurately convey fear, fear, or pain.
These flat-faced breeds have faces stuck in a permanent grimace that suggests pain, even when they are not in pain at all.
“This result was a real eye-opener for me. I didn’t really expect brachycephalic faces to have painful expressions,” said lead author Lauren Finka, a postdoctoral researcher at Nottingham Trent University in England.
Permanent grimaces
Those permanent grimaces could mean that cat owners can’t tell when their feline companions are in pain, Finka told Live Science.
Thanks to the selective breeding of humans, cat faces have changed most of their physical characteristics. Yet despite the importance of faces for nonverbal communication in animals, little research has been done on how this breeding has altered cats’ facial expressions.
To answer that question, Finka and her colleagues used a computer algorithm to analyze facial data from more than 2,000 cat pictures and assign each a score from neutral to full grimace.
By comparing the neutral facial expressions of different cat breeds to the stark facial expressions of short-haired domestic cats recovering from routine surgeries, Finka and her colleagues found that cats are not very expressive at first, but flat-faced cats seemed to ‘show pain’ . -like “facial expressions, even when completely relaxed. One breed, the Scottish Fold, scored even higher for pain-like facial expressions than short-haired cats that were in real pain.
Forever Young
So why do we prefer cats that look like they are in pain? One theory is that we breed animals to remain in an infantile state for longer, a process called neotenization. And babies and young people cry a lot.
“We probably have an innate preference for pain-like traits because they likely tap into our drive to nurture,” Finka said. “We feel sorry for them.”
Our preference for baby faces can harm our furry companions. Previous research has shown that extreme facial changes in cats are associated with a variety of conditions, from narrowed airways and excessive skin folding to respiratory and vision problems. And this is all thanks to our love of smoosh faces.
“Unfortunately, for our pets, it means that we can prefer – and even encourage – the existence of breeds with serious health problems who also have difficulty communicating with us and possibly other animals,” Finka wrote in The Conversation.
That’s right. Polished faces, cute as they are, can disrupt the way cats communicate with their owners, meaning cat owners can miss out when their cats are in real pain.
“If you buy a cat, do your research,” Finka said. “It’s important that we consider our animals’ ability to communicate.”
This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.