Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
February 1, 2003
Ami Klin, Warren Jones, Robert Schultz et al.
881 citations
People with autism and normal IQs can solve explicit social cognitive problems but struggle in real-world social situations. Eye-tracking studies reveal how they search for meaning in natural social scenes. This paper introduces the enactive mind (EM) approach, rooted in embodied cognitive science, which views cognition as arising from bodily interactions with the environment. The EM approach proposes that autism involves an early derailment of embodied social cognition due to reduced salience of social stimuli, leading to attention to socially irrelevant environmental aspects. This hypothesis aims to explain the gap between explicit social reasoning and everyday social functioning.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
W. Tecumseh Fitch, Colin Allen, Adina L Roskies
4 citations
The question of whether consciousness evolved, and what adaptive problems it solved, remains underexplored in consciousness studies. This special issue introduction discusses terminology, theoretical frameworks, and possible answers, drawing on contributions from 28 scholars. It argues that understanding the evolutionary functions of consciousness is central to biology and evolution, regardless of which species possess it. The issue aims to fill a gap in the literature by examining how consciousness might have provided survival advantages.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
Kristin Andrews, Noam Miller
3 citations
The social origins of consciousness hypothesis proposes that the original adaptive function of consciousness was to enable coordination with group members. Three arguments support this: a phylogenetic argument that consciousness is widespread among animals and likely evolved early to solve the problem of predicting others' behavior and staying together as a group during the Cambrian; a neuroscience argument that even simple brains have capacities for social rewards and pains, with modern brains retaining close connections between social cognition and affect; and an argument from deep adaptive alignment between social pain and harm to animals, building on William James (1890).
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
Eva Jablonka, Simona Ginsburg
3 citations
Consciousness in living organisms introduced new goals and functions, leading to a new form of selection called mental selection. This process involves choices guided by conscious perception and affective evaluation, expanding natural and sexual-social selection and providing a foundation for human artificial selection. The functional effects of consciousness were enabled by unlimited associative learning (UAL), which allows animals to discriminate complex percepts, engage in flexible goal-directed behavior, and adapt to diverse conditions. UAL-based signal selection in predator-prey, sexual, and social interactions drove the evolution of perceptual, emotional, and motor patterns that first appeared in the Cambrian era and later supported the development of imaginative animals and reflective humans.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
Yuranny Cabral-Calderin, Julio Hechavarria, Lucia Melloni
2 citations
Consciousness is not unique to humans; it likely exists in other animals and varies along a continuum shaped by evolution. To understand consciousness more fully, research should adopt a neuroethological perspective based on Tinbergen's four questions: mechanism, development, adaptive function, and evolutionary origin. This approach moves beyond studying only human adults and can help investigate consciousness in infants, non-human animals, and other entities. Adopting this broader view has important scientific, ethical, and societal implications.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
Albert Newen, Carlos Montemayor
2 citations
Consciousness is rarely examined from an evolutionary perspective, yet doing so can resolve conflicts among leading theories that focus too narrowly on cortical brain regions. The authors distinguish three core phenomena of phenomenal consciousness: basic arousal, which alarms the body and secures survival by intervening in slow homeostatic updates; general alertness, which fosters advanced learning and decision-making; and reflexive (self-)consciousness, which enables future-directed long-term planning and understanding others' minds. Each has a distinct function. Constraining theories of consciousness with this evolutionary and functional approach can advance the science of consciousness and guide the search for distinct neural correlates.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
The functions of consciousness depend on one's definition of consciousness itself, according to a theoretical or philosophical paper.