Trends Cogn Sci
August 20, 2020
Jonathan Birch, Alexandra K. Schnell, Nicola S. Clayton
394 citations
A multidimensional framework is proposed for understanding how consciousness varies across animal species. Rather than ranking species on a single scale of consciousness, the framework identifies five key dimensions: perceptual richness, evaluative richness, integration at a time, integration across time, and self-consciousness. For each dimension, existing experiments are reviewed and future experiments suggested. By assessing a species against each dimension, a distinctive consciousness profile can be constructed, indicating that no species is simply more or less conscious than another.
Nous
March 1, 2022
Jonathan Birch
227 citations
The debate over whether invertebrates are conscious lacks both agreement and a clear methodology. Three approaches exist: theory-heavy, theory-neutral, and theory-light. Theory-heavy and theory-neutral approaches have serious problems, so the author advocates a middle path: the theory-light approach. This approach relies on a minimal hypothesis: that conscious perception of a stimulus facilitates, relative to unconscious perception, a cluster of cognitive abilities related to that stimulus. This 'facilitation hypothesis' can guide research into invertebrate consciousness. The author argues that what is needed now is not more theory or undirected data gathering, but a systematic search for consciousness-linked cognitive abilities, their relationships, and their sensitivity to masking.
Science (New York, N.Y.)
February 21, 2025
Kristin Andrews, Jonathan Birch, Jeff Sebo
29 citations
A growing scientific field demonstrates that animal feelings can be investigated using rigorous methods, challenging the long-held view that subjective experiences in non-human animals are beyond scientific reach.
History and philosophy of the life sciences
November 22, 2021
Jonathan Birch
24 citations
An essay review contrasts two major theories of animal consciousness: Peter Godfrey-Smith's view that subjective experience is widespread across many animal lineages and Joseph LeDoux's claim that consciousness depends on higher-order brain circuits found only in mammals and birds. The author discusses the motivations behind each picture and attempts to find a middle path between them, weighing evidence from evolution, emotion, and the nature of phenomenal experience.
arXiv Preprint Archive
August 17, 2023
Patrick Butlin, Robert Long, Eric Elmoznino et al.
No current AI systems are conscious, but there are no obvious technical barriers to building ones that might be, according to an analysis grounded in neuroscientific theories of consciousness. The report surveys prominent theories—recurrent processing, global workspace, higher-order, predictive processing, and attention schema—and derives computational indicator properties from them. Applying these indicators to recent AI systems yields no evidence of consciousness, but the authors argue that future systems could potentially implement the necessary properties.