Research overview: recognition of human faces and voices by cats

Cats form bonds with specific people, and research has probed how they recognise their humans. This overview surveys evidence that cats identify owners primarily through voice, as shown in vocal-recognition experiments, with weaker or less consistent evidence for visual face recognition compared with their strong auditory and olfactory discrimination. It discusses cross-modal studies asking whether cats link a person's face and voice, and how scent contributes to recognition. It situates cats relative to dogs, which show stronger visual responsiveness to human faces. The topic clarifies which sensory channels underpin the cat's recognition of familiar humans and how this supports the human-cat relationship.