New study claims cats can respond to sound of their own names

TOKYO -- A new study claims that cats can respond to the sound of their own names, even if it's uttered by someone other than their owner.

According to the study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers at Tokyo's Sophia University had animals listen to a list that included words or names of other cats and ended with the cat's own name.

The researchers found, on average, that cats reacted more to their own name than the other words they heard.

The authors of the study claim this is the first experimental evidence that shows cats can distinguish between words people say.