Along with a recent increase in pet ownership, research on cats among the fields of ethology and cognitive science has been progressing. Do cats actually recognize their owner's voice? After conducting an experiment in which both a cat owner and strangers called out the cat's name, the cat demonstrated a clearly different response to their owner's voice. Furthermore, when a person pets a cat the amount of oxygenated hemoglobin in their brain increases. This is one indication of activity in the brain, and researchers surmise that petting cats helps stimulate the brain. We'll look at the front lines of this sort of research on cats.