Editorial: Comparative animal consciousness.
Louis N. Irwin, Lars Chittka, Eva Jablonka, Jon Mallatt
Front Syst Neurosci October 19, 2022 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2022.998421 via PubMed Central
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractThis collection of reviews, essays, and theories examines comparative animal consciousness from a biological and evolutionary perspective. Consciousness is defined as the process by which an animal has perceptual and affective experiences or feelings, arising from the material substrate of a nervous system. The work draws on a tradition of neuroscientific materialism, suggesting that consciousness is a biological phenomenon rooted in neural activity. It explores various aspects of how different animals may experience consciousness, taking an evolutionary approach to understand the origins and variations of conscious experience across species.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 11 |
| Key finding | Consciousness in animals is defined as perceptual and affective experience arising from a nervous system, and the collection takes a biological and evolutionary approach to understanding it. |
Abstract
The scientific study of consciousness has seen a resurgence in the 21st century. This collection of reviews, essays, and theories on various aspects of comparative animal consciousness takes a biological and evolutionary approach. As defined here, consciousness refers to the process by which an animal has perceptual and affective experience or feelings, arising from the material substrate of a nervous system. It draws upon a long tradition of neuroscientific materialism (Jackson,