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   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    How consciousness in animals could be researched    
      
     Date:   
         March 2, 2023   
     Source:   
         Ruhr-University Bochum   
     Summary:   
         Animal consciousness should not be thought of as a light switch,   
         which can be on or off, philosophers say. They advocate a different   
         approach.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
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   There are reasons to assume that not only humans but also some   
   non-human species of animal have conscious perception. Which species have   
   consciousness and how the subjective experience of various species could   
   differ is being investigated by Professor Albert Newen and PhD student   
   Leonard Dung from the Institute for Philosophy II at Ruhr University   
   Bochum. To do this, they characterise consciousness with ten different   
   dimensions and work out which behaviours indicate the presence of each   
   of these consciousness dimensions.   
      
   They describe their approach in the academic journal Cognition, published   
   online on 21 February 2023.   
      
      
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   Consciousness is not like a light switch There is a debate within   
   research as to which animals have consciousness. There are also various   
   views as to how consciousness can be expressed. "According to one view,   
   consciousness is like a light switch, which is either on or off: a species   
   either has consciousness or it does not," explains Albert Newen. A more   
   refined idea is that consciousness can be thought of as a dimmer switch:   
   it can exist in varying degrees.   
      
   Albert Newen and Leonard Dung do not agree with either of these theories.   
      
   According to them, ten dimensions, or aspects, of consciousness can be   
   distinguished, which cannot necessarily be placed in a ranking. These   
   include, for example, a rich emotional inner life, self-awareness and   
   or conscious perception. "It is not necessarily worthwhile to ask   
   whether a mouse has more consciousness than an octopus," clarifies   
   Albert Newen. "You may get a different answer, depending on the aspect   
   of consciousness that you are looking at."  The researchers from Bochum   
   suggest distinguishing between strong and weak indicators of consciousness   
   and allocating each of these to certain aspects of consciousness. "We hope   
   to ultimately make it possible to measure how the subjective experience   
   of various species differs between species and compared to humans,"   
   summarises Leonard Dung.   
      
   Strong and weak indicators of consciousness According to the authors,   
   the simple processing of sensory stimuli is not an indicator of   
   consciousness. Studies of humans with brain damage show that two pathways   
   in the brain have to interact for conscious perception, one of which   
   processes information about the spatial position of objects and the other   
   is responsible for the conscious classification of objects. If one of   
   these pathways is damaged, people can correctly interact with objects   
   -- for example, inserting a letter into a letterbox -- but without   
   perceiving the letterbox as such. "As a result, the mere reception of   
   and reaction to sensory stimuli, which we find in all living organisms,   
   is not a noteworthy indicator of consciousness," says Leonard Dung.   
      
   However, more complex forms of perception also occur in the animal   
   kingdom. For example, monkeys, parrots and dogs are able to identify or   
   categorise perceived objects as individual things. A grey parrot called   
   Alex was able to simultaneously categorise an object as red, round and   
   metallic. Border Collies can learn the names of up to 1,000 objects   
   and identify and fetch certain objects. Newen and Dung describe these   
   abilities of conscious perception as a weak indicator of consciousness.   
      
   A strong indicator of conscious perception can, however, be provided by   
   an experiment in which a person puts on a pair of computer glasses and   
   is shown a house in the left eye and a face in the right eye. They do not   
   see a mixture, but instead only see the house for a while, then the face,   
   then back to the house and so on. Analogous experiments now also exist   
   for animals, enabling what they are consciously perceiving to be tested.   
      
   Episodic memory is a strong indicator The authors also see episodic   
   memory, i.e. memories of previous life events, their time and their place,   
   as a strong indicator of consciousness. It is well documented in rats   
   and some species of bird.   
      
   Newen and Dung argue that consciousness is closely linked to complex   
   memory and learning abilities and with perception. In order to understand   
   consciousness, it would be helpful if behavioural observations could   
   be combined with neuroscientific data, which is already possible in   
   individual cases. "However, as we do not know enough about the brain basis   
   of conscious experience, even in humans, and we are aiming to compare   
   widely differing species with a very different brain organisation, a   
   behavioural comparison in ten dimensions is the best approach that we   
   have for the time being," concludes Albert Newen.   
      
       * RELATED_TOPICS   
             o Plants_&_Animals   
                   # New_Species # Animal_Learning_and_Intelligence   
                   # Extinction # Animals # Wild_Animals # Nature #   
                   Life_Sciences # Endangered_Animals   
       * RELATED_TERMS   
             o Animal_cognition o Vitamin_A o Mirror_neuron o Color_vision   
             o Sleep o Firefly o Eye o Bioluminescence   
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by Ruhr-University_Bochum. Original   
   written by Julia Weiler.   
      
   Note: Content may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Leonard Dung, Albert Newen. Profiles of animal consciousness:   
      A species-   
         sensitive, two-tier account to quality and distribution. Cognition,   
         2023; 235: 105409 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105409   
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   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230302093405.htm   
      
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