Читать книгу Animal Behavior for Shelter Veterinarians and Staff - Группа авторов - Страница 79

Cats, like all species, are constantly learning and potentially changing their behavior as they navigate their environment. Learning and memory are aspects of feline cognition, or the manner by which a cat perceives, processes, and acts on environmental information (Shettleworth 2001). Sensory capabilities, working memory, understanding of the physical world (e.g., object permanence or manipulation of objects to achieve a resource), problem solving, and social communication are specific domains often assessed in cognitive research. However, some investigators have recently suggested that many previous studies have likely undervalued the cognitive capacity of cats due to the use of protocols originally aimed at assessing primate or canine cognitive abilities (Vitale Shreve and Udell 2015).

Just as early experiences have strong influences on the development of cognitive abilities, age‐related degeneration can create significant behavior changes. Cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CDS) refers to sensory degeneration, impairments in memory and decision‐making abilities, and emotional dysregulation. An aging cat may display disorientation, changes in social interactions, sleep‐wake cycle alterations, housesoiling, changes in activity, excessive vocalization, appetite changes, and decreased self‐hygiene (Landsberg et al. 2010). Most of these issues could be due to a primary medical cause; therefore, CDS is an antemortem diagnosis of exclusion, although postmortem histology reveals neurotoxic amyloid‐beta accumulation, similar to CDS in dogs and Alzheimer’s disease in human patients. As in other species, there is no definitive treatment, although antioxidant diets or supplements in addition to environmental enrichment may improve cognitive signs and quality of life for aging cats.