VI. Life’s Cerebral Cognizance Becomes More Complex, Smarter, Informed, Proactive, Self-Aware

1. Animal Intelligence, Persona and Sociality

Martin, Cristofre and Richard Gordon. The Evolution of Perception. Cybernetics and Systems. 32/3-4, 2001. Insights into a “perceiving universe” which as a “perceptogenesis” has as a purpose or goal its own self-recognition.

Mather, Jennifer. Cephalopod Consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition. 17/1, 2008. A University of Lethbridge, Canada, psychologist quantifies how our octopus, squid, and cuttlefish companions likewise possess cognitive capacities so as to add this creaturely class to the burgeoning fauna graced by a modicum of human-like sensibilities and activities.

Behavioural evidence suggests that cephalopod molluscs may have a form of primary consciousness. First, the linkage of brain to behaviour seen in lateralization, sleep and through a developmental context is similar to that of mammals and birds. Second, cephalopods, especially octopuses, are heavily dependent on learning in response to both visual and tactile cues, and may have domain generality and form simple concepts. Third, these animals are aware of their position, both within themselves and in larger space, including having a working memory of foraging areas in the recent past. Thus if using a ‘global workspace’ which evaluates memory input and focuses attention is the criterion, cephalopods appear to have primary consciousness. (37)

Mather, Jennifer. What is in an Octopus’s Mind? Animal Sentience. Volume 5, 2019. The senior University of Lethbridge, Canada marine psychologist provides an illustrated, update summary from two decades of collaborative aquatic and laboratory research. As a result a broad quantification of cerebral cephalopods with a wide repertoire of intelligent, thoughtful, clever behaviors suitable for their environs is achieved. Even though not brain based, once again a default display of bilateral functions (see A. Schnell) was activated for specialized predation and vigilance. This work is seen as a salient contribution to whole-scale on-going perceptions of a natural, ecognitive intelligent acumen which is beginning to appear as a universal ecosmic resource. See also Did a Cuttlefish Write This? by Veronique Greenwood, Veronique in the New York Times for July 9, 2021 for a further notice.

It is difficult to imagine what an animal as different from us as the octopus “thinks’”, but we can make some progress. In the perceptual world of an octopus, what the lateralized monocular eyes perceive is not color but the plane of polarization of light. Information is processed by a bilateral brain but manipulation is done by a radially symmetrical set of eight arms. The motor system of the eight arms is organized at brain, intrabrachial commissure and local brachial ganglia levels. The actions of octopuses can be domain general, with flexible problem-solving strategies, enabling them to survive “by their wits” in a challenging and variable environment. (Abstract excerpt)

Merker, Bjorn. The Liabilities of Mobility: A Selection Pressure for the Transition to Consciousness in Animal Evolution. Consciousness and Cognition. 14/1, 2005. (The special issue that contains this article is noted in Baars above) Among other forces, the need for enhanced, responsive movement impels an increasing sentient knowledge and awareness of an animal’s niche environment.

This suggests that consciousness arose as a solution to problems in the logistics of decision making in mobile animals with centralized brains, and has correspondingly ancient roots. (89)

Moroz, Leonid and DariaRomanova. Chemical cognition: Chemoconnectomics and convergent evolution of integrative systems in animals. Animal Cognition. November, 2023. University of Florida and Russian Academy of Science, Moscow researchers contribute deep 2020s insights to recover how original, rudimentary creatures yet possessed a relatively sophisticated neural cognizant abilities

Neurons underpin sentience in animals. However, the roots of their cognition are remain elusive. Here we propose that neural integrative systems evolved more than once within basal metazoan lineages such as ctenophores and neuroid-like placozoans and sponges. In addition, a chemical connectome mediated by hundreds of signal molecules operates in tandem with neurons as the informative source of emerging, adaptive properties. Uniting what we call chemoconnectomics with the cellular sources of behavior in basal metazoan lineages would decipher the origins and early evolution of elementary cognition and intelligence.

Nieder, Andreas, et al. A Neural Correlate of Sensory Consciousness in a Corvid Bird. Science. 369/1626, 2020. By way of the latest neuroimaging abilities, University of Tubingen animal psychologists add proof that our feathered friends have quite an aware intelligence and behavioral repertoire. See also a commentary Birds do have a Brain Cortex and Think by Suzana Herculano-Houzel in the same issue. Once more the real presence of thoughtful, appropriate cognizance becomes evident. But all I really have to do is look out my window and witness clever blue jays frolicking at the bird bath.

Subjective experiences that can be consciously accessed and reported are associated with the cerebral cortex. Whether sensory consciousness can arise from differently organized brains that lack a layered cerebral cortex, such as the bird brain, remains unknown. We show that single-neuron responses in the pallial endbrain of crows performing a visual detection task correlate with the birds’ perception about stimulus presence or absence and argue that this is an empirical marker of avian consciousness. These results suggest that the neural foundations of sensory consciousness arose either before the emergence of mammals or independently in at least the avian lineage and do not necessarily require a cerebral cortex. (Abstract)

Panksepp, Jaak. The Basic Emotional Circuits of Mammalian Brains: Do Animals Have Affective Lives?.. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 35/9, 2011. Estonian born Panksepp is Chair of Animal Well-Being, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University. This is a cover paper for a special issue on his lifetime of pioneer research in the area, such as laughter in rodents, and epitomizes the total turnabout on the basis of advanced scientific brain research that all manner of creatures are, as we know, deeply sentient, clever, emotional companions, very much persons in their own evolutionary station. Search this journal for more pithy papers by JP.

The primal affects are intrinsic brain value systems that unconditionally and automatically inform animals how they are faring in survival. They serve an essential function in emotional learning. The positive affects indexes comfort zones that support survival, while negative affects inform animals of circumstances that may impair survival. Affective feelings come in several varieties, including sensory, homeostatic, and emotional (which I focus on here). Primary-process emotional feelings arise from ancient caudal and medial subcortical regions, and were among the first subjective experiences to exist on the face of the earth. Without them, higher forms of conscious �awareness� may not have emerged in primate brain evolution. Because of homologous �instinctual� neural infrastructures, we can utilize animal brain research to reveal the nature of primary-process human affects. Since all vertebrates appear to have some capacity for primal affective feelings, the implications for animal-welfare and how we ethically treat other animals are vast. (Abstract, 1)

If the ancient brain mechanism for affective feelings are evolutionarily related in all mammals, we can finally begin to understand the deep neural nature of human feelings by studying the homologous neuroanatomies and neurochemistries of these systems in animal models. This could greatly advance our understanding of the human brain and mind. But this transition from Cartesian skepticism, and a denial of mind in other animals, to neuro-mental realism is bound to be a slow process, at least among neuroscientists who have built their careers and belief systems on the behaviorist never-mind tradition. (10)

Pennisi, Elizabeth. Social Animals Prove Their Smarts. Science. 312/1734, 2006. Although animal intelligence has long been denigrated, a revolution is underway to quantify and appreciate its pervasive fact throughout the metazoan kingdom. This is especially so with regard to primates whose group lifestyles demand and promote cerebral competence and human-like behavior.

Pennisi, Elizabeth. The Power of Personality. Science. 352/644, 2016. A report on the latest findings that all manner of creatures from primates, cats and dogs, especially birds and onto insects, as we well know, are endowed with the whole gamut of human-like behaviors. These attributes then serve one’s own survival and that of their relative species.

Pepperberg, Irene. The Alex Studies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000. A book length report on sophisticated, double blind research over many years with a grey parrot able to learn and verbalize so that his extensive cognitive abilities could be evaluated and quantified.

Perruchet, Pierre and Annie Vinter. Linking Learning and Consciousness: The Self-Organizing Consciousness Model. Cleeremans, Axel, ed. The Unity of Consciousness. Cleeremans, Axel, ed. The Unity of Consciousness. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. On the hypothesis that the evolution of informed sentience is most of all a dynamic “learning” experience.

Pfeffer, Sarah and Harald Wolf. Anthropod Spatial Cognition. Animal Cognition. 23/11, 2020. Ulm University neurobiologists introduce a special issue about the extraordinary acute capacities of these invertebrates whose appropriate sophistication seems to be far beyond their rudimentary neural facility.

Arthropod insects and crustaceans show a diverse repertoire of cognitive feats. Despite their smaller brains, the cognitive abilities of arthropods are comparable to, or may even exceed, those of some vertebrates. Miniature brains often provide parsimonious but smart solutions for complex behaviours or ecologically relevant problems. Arthropod spatial cognition studies long concentrated on the honeybee, However, myriad species worldwide, have a broad diversity of lifestyles, ecology, and cognitive abilities. This special issue compiles four review articles and ten original research reports from a spectrum of arthropod species. They range from the well-studied hymenopterans, and ants in particular, to chelicerates and crustaceans. (Abstract excerpt)

Previous   1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9  Next