It is believed that a quarter of adult house cats suffer the chronic pain of osteoarthritis. That may be a price they pay for longer lives as pets. Existing treatment comes with side effects, so more research into feline pain is needed. But have you ever tried to take an electroencephalogram (EEG) of a cat? No, you haven't, but a team from the University of Montreal in Quebec has manage to do it for the first time ever on cats who were awake.
Cats aren't cooperative research subjects, and will not tolerate electrodes stuck on their heads. Co-author of the study Aliénor Delsart said the scientists were spending more time putting the electrodes back on the cats than they were doing the EEGs. The solution is the little cap the cat shown above is wearing. The team contacted a graduate student who crocheted, and she made the cats little caps that the electrodes were attached to. The cats tolerated them, as they would an owner who wanted to take pictures for cat memes. It wasn't a total success, as two cats had to be excluded from the study when they couldn't get with the program, but getting an EEG at all from a cat is a breakthrough. Read more about this research at Ars Technica.
(Image credit: Aliénor Delsart)