Research overview: visual acuity in cats compared with humans

Cats see the world less sharply than humans do, and this overview reviews how feline visual acuity is measured and what limits it. Behavioural and electrophysiological tests indicate that cats resolve fine detail at perhaps a fraction of human acuity, a consequence of a retina optimised for sensitivity and motion rather than fine spatial resolution. What cats lose in sharpness they gain in dim-light performance and rapid motion detection. Researchers quantify acuity with grating-discrimination tasks and retinal anatomy. Why it matters: acuity comparisons reveal the design priorities of the cat eye, showing that the feline visual system is not a worse version of ours but a different one, tuned to the needs of a crepuscular predator that must spot a faint movement in the dark far more often than it must read fine static detail.