Exploring the Expressions and Emotions of Cats: Can Cats Laugh and Smile?

1. Introduction

Cats have confused people for centuries, and we've recently begun to scratch the surface of what cats are actually telling us with their behaviors. We see good-humored cartoons or animals labeled with human emotions, but remember that what we know doesn't even come close to the information we actually possess. Instead of implanting our emotions into our animals, understanding exactly what our animals feel in a manner that matches them is vital in our relationships with them. This essay seeks to answer a few questions that people have been asking: Can cats express their emotions? And if they can express emotions, can cats smile and laugh? These questions must be addressed from the start.

We hope you've enjoyed getting to learn more about your pets, because our emotions are a little bit of both. Keep in mind that research into these types of questions is ongoing, and until we've had definitive solutions, we may only consider what we have discovered. It's critical to understand that in any kind of sign language, oral communication, or behavioral understanding, gestures can be highly distinct from one animal to another, but in order to express ourselves. Felines are known in the animal kingdom for their ability to mask their inner thoughts and feelings, resisting the urge to make themselves identifiable.

2. Understanding Cat Body Language

Cats have unique body language that can communicate an amazing range of expressions and emotions. It’s important to understand your cat's body language in order to communicate better with them, and in order to better respond to their needs and wants. Only a true "cat person" can understand what cats are trying to tell them. We will start with facial expressions, cat's tails and what they mean, and move onto their ears and what they mean, and we will end with different other ways cats can express their emotions and motives with their bodies besides all of these: Purring signals contentment and serenity. Cats exhibit differently than smiles signs of contentment. "Loafing" where the cat "Sits back on his/her hams, with his/her toes all tucked safely in. There’s no real common name for this pose, it’s just how you can tell your cat is feeling at ease and relaxed — they'll even turn their back on you!

A cat that looks at you with his/her eyes forward and his/her ears a little tilted back is okay with you or the situation. Licking is common for a lot of things — from "hmm, I'm hungry" to "gosh, I just can't get the scent of that soap off me" to "that's one really dirty bluff." No matter what, licking is a sure sign that you've got a happy kitty. A cat holding his/her tail high is feeling good. Sometimes as a cat walks happy tail straight up, the end will quiver. A slowly lashing tail is irritated and hasn't lashed yet, a rapidly lashing tail is agitated to the point of losing control and an electrified "bottlebrush" tail is a cat that is very distressed, scared, or angry. Tail arching is aggressive to show off your size and strength or it is used by a friendly cat to welcome another friendly cat, or even humans. Tail tucked means that a cat is frightened or reluctant to do something. Tail puffed means same as electrified tail, plus being "big" scares things away as most animals fear "big", or "loud noises." Ears pricked forward, the cat is feeling good, and if their ears and whiskers are forward they are curious. If they are pricked backwards, the cat is feeling scared or angry and when ears are leaning back and their eyes are slitting, beware! A warning is being given. Showing their paws is a rare behavior but some cats will have a habit of this. It is usually interpreted as a friendly gesture, perhaps submissive. Fights between cats may sometimes start with one cat "helplessly" showing its belly, but quickly turn to war. It tells you the cat is relaxed but is mostly likely to act if an opportunity arises. It is hard to tell when a cat is laughing because they do not have a distinguishable laugh, it is a human term, and it is so rare that they laugh, unfortunately, cats do not laugh, so the notion of cats smiling and emotions so close to humans is not real, but rather a figment of the human imagination to try to humanize cats beyond what they really are and could communicate to humans. A laughing cat, according to Google images and the Internet, tries to hunch over with their head scrunched inwards, their face wrinkling up and a big toothy grin stretching across. Their nose wrinkles up and their eyes close. A smiling cat often looks like they are soaking in the sun with a gentle soft smile: Their face is mostly at rest and their teeth not showing at all. It just plain and simply looks peaceful.

2.1. Facial Expressions

Due to the significant differences between humans and cats, interpreting emotions and expressions in cats may be challenging. However, the facial expressions of cats reveal a plethora of emotions, from irritation to affection. A variety of researchers have elaborated on these findings about the facial expression of cats. It is very vital for cat lovers and cat owners to understand the communication that cats convey through their facial expressions.

The face is the key area for cat communication, so the cat's facial expression is the most efficient way for the cat to convey its emotions. Some researchers have shown that the facial features of cats can express various emotions. Some of the facial expressions observed in cats are surprise, anger, and a smile. Many researchers have shown that when angry, the whiskers of a kitten become tense. Tense whiskers look like a capital letter A and are pulled towards the face or the nose. Ears bent backwards and upwards with dilated pupils express aggression and readiness to fight. Cats can wave their tail in excitement when they are about to be fed. The forward-faced eyes and whiskers moving into their mouth in a backward direction with ears backward, shrunk, and sharp pointed teeth observed in many domestic cats are observed when a new person or animal approaches.

2.2. Tail Movements

Cats use their tails to express emotions, intentions, and warnings in some cases, and they are of paramount importance. In a cat’s life, the tail plays a variety of roles, from providing balance to serving as a weapon. The different parts of the tail are used to move the tail in three typical ways: straight, lowered, upright, and a lashing movement, which is rather a warning. For example, ending in a hook means a friendly greeting and interest on the cat’s part. The straight tail with a raised tip shows that cats have positive intentions and emotions. Tail lashing, on the other hand, can have negative implications or be a result of the body’s various preys to gain stability, or due to conflicting feelings the feline is coping with. A thick tail is considered a sign of irritation and possibly aggressive intentions when a cat is lying in ambush.

A fluffy tail is a warning and is typically displayed in response to something when tensions are high. More expansively, tail positions and movements can have a wide amount of variation depending on the region, specific group, and the feline. When she is angry or aggressive, the broad tail moving horizontally, for example, is an American longhair breed (Maine Coon). The relative importance of the ears compared to the tail is lowering. The Middle Eastern semi-angora of the Turkish Van Cats and other species do not employ the tail posture; instead, they keep their curled tail. A straight tail, on the other hand, is a warning, according to some breeders.

2.3. Ear Positions

With all these muscles and blood vessels, no wonder the cats have pointy, sweet, sad, comical, sleek, wrinkled, or tiny ears that kind of blend in. Cats have a subtle way to deflect their ears in various directions. A cat listening, especially if it is closing its eyes, could be an indication of peacefulness or disregarding you. At first glance, backward pointing ears might seem to be a sign of aggression, but a playful cat also may have its ears back and a scared cat may also have its ear pinned to its head. However, a very frightened or angry cat is likely to have its ears flat (pinned at the back of its head). There is an upside-down "V" drawn over its head since it is so flattened.

The aggressiveness of a cocked ear strongly depends on the rest of the facial muscles; soft eyes are a sign of relaxation, whereas hard stares are indications of aggression. The flicking ears are best viewed from the side of the cat because one ear muscle pulls it back while the other one pulls it forward. Giving the cat a treated toy and turning it and a shook head away while you look at it moves the ears like crazy. Rapt and a faraway look, and you'll be able to see the ears swiveling sharply away then forward to catch the sound. The ears swivel forward and back for a variety of other reasons. Hair might be irritated when bent or grazing through an article of furniture. Repeatedly removing flies or lice also makes the ear twitch. A cat may also give you the cheek and lock eyes with you when it is concentrating hard on a sound.

3. The Science Behind Cat Emotions

Cats are not able to laugh as humans do, and they probably do not smile, at least not in the sense that humans smile. Technically speaking, the facial expressions of cats are not meant to convey their emotional state. Other animals that humans have long domesticated and bred tend to see variations in body movement and hormone flow depending on the cat breed.

Smiling, for example, is a symbol of trust and amity in some societies, demonstrating teeth to be a mark. However, based on the most recent information that we have from morphological analyses, it would be best to say that one of the normal feline traits is a relaxed and confident expression, in the context of body settlement, courtesy of their genetic association with us, but that it is not a visible fitting image of the human smile.

In addition, as Simon's Cat's illustrations demonstrate, when a cat is at ease and in the quality of life humorous photographs, it may appear to be laughing or smiling because it is close-knit and linked together in a 'living' atmosphere. But is that what they are thinking, frequently?

The quantity of neurons in the hippocampus of cats, and the proportional area it fills in their brains, allegedly integrates information from the bully, suggesting some kind of cognitive bear. An ethological report could not seem to manage to find a clear explanation, indicating that he might simply look back behind him to plan his time, for example, if they all believed that they all had a negative mood, or if their pupils contracted with contentment and joy.

In the field of neuronal-brain efficiency therapy, as in other disciplines of medicine, there is little research into possible connections. Other neuroscience can not tell us what these joyful looks and choices, which trigger concentration of endorphins and oxytocin, imply since there is not enough proof. They do, however, account for nice feelings.

3.1. Neurological Studies

In the human brain, studies have shown that laughter activates the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward system, which occurs when people experience music and perceive other rewards. After laughing, the blood pressure and heart rate decrease, and the parasympathetic phase of the autonomic system triggers a resting cycle, allowing the body to relax and recover.

In a feline medical journal, like Homo sapiens, primitive mammals also have limbic systems. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can capture brain activity in humans and carefully anesthetized animals, as well as other animals and animals visiting the club. If cats respond to the feeling that owners can see through pain-related brain activity, this reflects the cat's love for the owner. When statistics arise, extreme peaks and troughs at random values are raised to the power of freedom and found to be exaggerated when the whole brain is considered instead of the entire recorded brain. The F-test is twice as strong, with an unlikely mask in the a priori area when the classical p-value threshold of p<0.001 and peeling is used, indicating that complete whole-brain analysis is more likely to produce a type of error when it comes in contact with human smiles (a priori mask requested from Neurosynth using the query "smile") than when it comes in contact with inanimate objects.

3.2. Hormonal Influences

Background: Hormones play a central role in the expression of emotions in mammals. The adoption of certain postures, vocal sound patterns, facial and other movements, including vocal expressions, are driven by hormonal fluctuations. In the case of domestic cats relative to others in the Felidae family, a few more is known about posture, facial, vocal expressions, and the emotions these presumably reflect. There is evidence that estrous female domestic cats may convey interest through marked pupils, a slow blink of the dominant cat, a sphinx-like position, and a sway of the rear. The impetus for these behaviors is estrogen. The attachment hormone oxytocin has been implicated in creating feelings of trust and bonding in mammals, possibly by lowering room for risk feedback (reward) via dopaminergic projections. Oxytocin effects are socially produced, ease autonomic biological responses of arousal and stress, and hands autonomic parasympathetic reactivity. Prolactin is known as the mothering hormone in mammals, while endorphins play a complex key role in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. In the present review, we focus on prolactin, prolactin-related endorphins, and the oxytocin system as they prolong the hindbrain feedback loop during positive and negative decision-making, stress, reward, and attachment bond formation. These systems drive the emission of vocal expressions that are likely linked to the purr, the smile, and a laughter framework. Yes, in all cases described so far, interest, satisfaction, and trust vocalizes are given when the hindbrain neurological pathways create temporary euphoria feelings.

Domestic cats are sexually dimorphic, with the male having wide-ranging territories and the female locally based around a core where she conceives, carries, and confines. A modified lordotic body posture is provided to estrous human females by male scratch along the length of the edge of the ridged skin of the potential pregnancy area on her back or flank. This scratch of the skin, called allomark, activates endorphin production by the lactotrope and endorphin neutrophil system, where endorphins regulate the attachment hindbrain oxytocin-driven feedback loops. The same system is linked to the body of the pain and reward system in domestic cats, as found in the lion. The attachment system in domestic cats and humans is anchored in the core, including the mating and food motivation, and regulated by the attachment feedback oxytocin loop to the pleasure-pain system.

4. Common Misconceptions about Cat Emotions

There are many ingrained myths about cats in every culture, and these are seen frequently in many popular expressions and cartoons. One of the most common associations is the smile, and there are expressions (like "Cheshire cat") that have been taken directly from literature. There are also some expressions that we use every day, and we consider common. For example, when we say, "When the cat's away, the mice will play," many people actually imagine what will happen to the food or what the mice will do during this time. These ideas are based not only on our experience with cats and mice but also on the behavior of each animal. Alas, our expressions often do not reflect the emotional or situational reality of the animals. They are sometimes exaggerations or simply phrases that accompany cartoons or are spoken without serious thought.

Furthermore, throughout history, there are other phrases such as "to cook the cat" that are used in many countries. This question often comes up in many places and times. One frequently asked question concerns cats and their ability to smile or laugh. This is because many cat people believe that their cat smiles at them when they are specifically delighted to see their human, or when they are comfortable. Some foster families think that a cat has pain in this area, or that it has difficulty closing its mouth, because it smiles. It is not right for a cat to smile. This is something that is often heard from people's mouths, and it is in the folklore of many societies. Of course, a cat can "return" a smile to a human who personally smiles at something good and communicates non-verbally, but a cat's smile is not based on its feelings or psychology.

5. Can Cats Laugh and Smile?

There is no conclusive evidence that definitively answers the question of whether cats can smile, laugh, or feel happiness as we might perceive it. Some research has found that the facial expressions of cats can mimic those of laughter and smiling in humans and suggest that cats' facial expressions can be interpreted similarly to those of human beings, thereby implying that cats can indeed feel delight and express joy as well. However, there is no accompanying research that supports these hypotheses, leaving the question open to debate.

Expression is an important part of non-verbal communication of laughter. When people laugh, not only is the mouth area mobilized, but the eyes also change in a consistent manner; the amplitude may vary, but the narrow-eyed smile is usually similar from one laugh to the next. Information about narrow and open-eyed smiles in cats is not available. When cats express their similar goal of friendship or fun activity, owners often experience moments of communication that become cat-lover's "shared smiles". Owners use their perception and experience to interpret the facial mimicry of cats as similar to those of humans, namely as an expression of happiness—simultaneously—unknown brain neuronal mechanisms. For the current image study, either single still position photographs of cats, demonstrating a clear whisker pad configuration or two, open and narrowed-eye conditions were selected. Owners of the particular picture were asked to rate the valence of the cheek area. Data were collected online from the United States with an advertisement posted on the Cats' Reddit community. The investigation confirmed a close correspondence between the human and cat valence appraisal for the face area of the cheek, irrespective of the condition and excellent or substantial owner agreement.

5.1. Research on Feline Laughter

While little has been written about the social expressions of joy in cats, there has been a tiny bit of research on feline laughter. Cats will often make a loud, sudden exhale of breath with an open mouth – a sound easily confused by a human as being similar to human laughter: "Ha, ha." Dr. Sharon Crowell-Davis, a veterinarian at the University of Georgia who is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, studied the sound produced by cats during relaxation and found that by stimulating the area within the animal's brain that controls social emotions, cats did produce a ha-ha sound. Cats may also chirp at birds and make a similar, but distinct, sound when protecting a food resource.

She studied 94 cats, both pets and those available for adoption, and even one who lived in a cat café in Japan, where people can watch or play with kitties while drinking coffee. Dr. Crowell-Davis also studied shelter cats before and after they experienced human socialization, spending hours observing the participating cats – as well as 10-minute recordings taken right before and after sessions. Her research showed that feline laughter exists in the form of chirping or chortling. Cats may chirp with every exhale or with every few breaths. At the same time, most members of the general public are happy to believe that cats can and do laugh. For example, there is a whole section in the book "The Cat Lover's Compendium" that describes cat laughter and even cat jokes. Of course, no one can tell what a cat is thinking, and it's impossible to prove or disprove whether cats can laugh. A cat's laughter would certainly not be a laughfest, and most likely not a sign of cheerfulness. Nor, for that matter, is a cat's smile a sign of happiness.

5.2. Interpreting Smiling Behaviors in Cats

Dogs usually exhibit some changes in the behaviors of their ears, tails, or mouths when they have business agreements or are friendly, and humans have become accustomed to interpreting these movements. However, cats change their ear and tail movements independently of their facial movements, which is one step away from their being able to smile. The seeing animals who change their appearance have sometimes been cleverly interpreted as animals that smile, even if they shouldn't have expressions. With a few exceptions, the softened face appears to be smiling. The concept that humans 'infer laughing enjoyment from the face'. Anatomically, smiling is the effect of visual information about throat and mouth contours along with a biomechanical change of eye size.

In cats, a relatively closed eyelid occurs with the sunny-downtown sign, and a completely closed eyelid with a laid-back sign, and completely closed eyes and softened ears seem to indicate a good relationship with humans. Considering changes in behavior, these feline facial movements seem to indicate cooperative behaviors even in a strange environment and may be an unconscious signal of the animal's own goodwill. The decrease in the number of aggressive behaviors under the influence of this behavior may provide evidence of this aspect. Further investigation of the relationship between changes in expressions associated with a favorable disposition and cat emotions should be carried out with careful observations. In regard to domestic dogs, a significant positive correlation has been observed between a human-coded 'positive arousal', such as 'Happy' or 'Interest-stare' behavior items and the score of the heart rate variability (HRV). Cats develop gestures which are often associated with socialization in addition to dogs.

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