Scientists may have found a way for the first time to measure electrical activity in cats’ brains in real time – using tiny crocheted hats fitted with gold-plated electrodes.
While a wool hat with tiny slits for pointy ears isn’t necessarily revolutionary, it has long been a struggle for researchers to understand what’s going on behind those mysterious beady eyes due to cats’ notorious lack of compliance. “Even if we used anatomical markers (snout, ears and inion), it was difficult to always keep the electrodes in exactly the same place,” the scientists write in a study published in the November 2024 issue of the journal. Journal of Neuroscience Methods.
The team of researchers found that these electrode-filled little hats were “well tolerated” by 10 out of 11 feline subjects. “Most cats remained calm with minimal restraint, but some individuals required a second hand on the chest to discourage them from moving forward,” the paper said. “The knitted cap helped keep the electrodes in place during the evaluation and prevented cats from trying to play with or chew the wire.”
“One cat appeared to fall asleep during the procedure,” the scientists added.
Captured in photos documenting the procedure of the study, these cats in woolly hats would fit in well with the reluctant subjects featured in the subreddit r/CatsInHats.
In addition to looking cute, these researchers hope that putting these hats on cats can help treat chronic pain in cats. In particular, measurements of pain levels and other brain activity could help inform targeted treatments for osteoarthritis, which affects 25.6% of the species’ adult population, according to the study’s introduction. The condition, just like in humans, causes excruciating chronic pain and degeneration of the body’s cartilage. The treatment options available for cats are extremely limited and most painkillers pose a problem serious side effects.
For this study, scientists used the hats to measure whether different stimuli, including grapefruit aroma and exposure to green light, could affect a cat’s pain level.
Although the study did not conclusively prove whether such interventions reduced the cats’ pain, the fact that cats can tolerate this form of non-invasive brain tracking while awake is itself a novel finding, as previous tests were conducted exclusively on sleeping cats were carried out. These hats will thus allow scientists to measure and observe real-time responses to direct stimuli, opening up new research opportunities.
And don’t worry: these hats won’t hurt the cats. “The entire procedure took approximately 45 minutes per cat,” the scientists wrote in their description of the procedure, “including positive reinforcement (treats and petting) between sensory exposures.”
