The Transition to Minimal Consciousness Through the Evolution of Associative Learning

Overview

Journal Front Psychol

Date 2017 Jan 10

PMID 28066282

Citations 28

Authors

Zohar Z Bronfman

Simona Ginsburg

Eva Jablonka

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The minimal state of consciousness is sentience. This includes any phenomenal sensory experience - exteroceptive, such as vision and olfaction; interoceptive, such as pain and hunger; or proprioceptive, such as the sense of bodily position and movement. We propose (UAL) as the marker of the , its phylogenetically earliest sustainable manifestation and the driver of its evolution. We define and describe UAL at the behavioral and functional level and argue that the structural-anatomical implementations of this mode of learning in different taxa entail subjective feelings (sentience). We end with a discussion of the implications of our proposal for the distribution of consciousness in the animal kingdom, suggesting testable predictions, and revisiting the ongoing debate about the function of minimal consciousness in light of our approach.

Citing Articles

The function(s) of consciousness: an evolutionary perspective.

Lacalli T Front Psychol. 2024; 15:1493423.

PMID: 39660268 PMC: 11628302. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1493423.

Symbolic representation by a two-dimensional matrix for profiling comparative animal behavior.

Irwin L Front Psychol. 2024; 15:1450754.

PMID: 39649780 PMC: 11621754. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1450754.

Neuroscience of animal consciousness: still agnostic after all.

Gutfreund Y Front Psychol. 2024; 15:1456403.

PMID: 39444826 PMC: 11496166. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1456403.

Behavioral indicators of heterogeneous subjective experience in animals across the phylogenetic spectrum: Implications for comparative animal phenomenology.

Irwin L Heliyon. 2024; 10(7):e28421.

PMID: 38623251 PMC: 11016586. DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e28421.

The Conscious Nematode: Exploring Hallmarks of Minimal Phenomenal Consciousness in .

Becerra D, Calixto A, Orio P Int J Psychol Res (Medellin). 2023; 16(2):87-104.

PMID: 38106963 PMC: 10723751. DOI: 10.21500/20112084.6487.

References

Brembs B, Heisenberg M . The operant and the classical in conditioned orientation of Drosophila melanogaster at the flight simulator. Learn Mem. 2001; 7(2):104-15. PMC: 311324. DOI: 10.1101/lm.7.2.104. View

Schultz W, Dickinson A . Neuronal coding of prediction errors. Annu Rev Neurosci. 2000; 23:473-500. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.neuro.23.1.473. View

Boal J, Dunham A, Williams K, Hanlon R . Experimental evidence for spatial learning on octopuses (octopus bimaculoides). J Comp Psychol. 2000; 114(3):246-52. DOI: 10.1037/0735-7036.114.3.246. View

Gewirtz J, Davis M . Using pavlovian higher-order conditioning paradigms to investigate the neural substrates of emotional learning and memory. Learn Mem. 2000; 7(5):257-66. DOI: 10.1101/lm.35200. View

Lamme V, Roelfsema P . The distinct modes of vision offered by feedforward and recurrent processing. Trends Neurosci. 2000; 23(11):571-9. DOI: 10.1016/s0166-2236(00)01657-x. View

Menzel R, Giurfa M . Cognitive architecture of a mini-brain: the honeybee. Trends Cogn Sci. 2001; 5(2):62-71. DOI: 10.1016/s1364-6613(00)01601-6. View

Edelman G . Consciousness: the remembered present. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2001; 929:111-22. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb05711.x. View

Llinas R, Ribary U . Consciousness and the brain. The thalamocortical dialogue in health and disease. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2001; 929:166-75. View

Margulis L . The conscious cell. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2001; 929:55-70. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb05707.x. View

10.

Wang X . Synaptic reverberation underlying mnemonic persistent activity. Trends Neurosci. 2001; 24(8):455-63. DOI: 10.1016/s0166-2236(00)01868-3. View

11.

GANTI T . Organization of chemical reactions into dividing and metabolizing units: the chemotons. Biosystems. 1975; 7(1):15-21. DOI: 10.1016/0303-2647(75)90038-6. View

12.

Macphail E, Bolhuis J . The evolution of intelligence: adaptive specializations versus general process. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2001; 76(3):341-64. DOI: 10.1017/s146479310100570x. View

13.

Engel A, Fries P, Singer W . Dynamic predictions: oscillations and synchrony in top-down processing. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2001; 2(10):704-16. DOI: 10.1038/35094565. View

14.

Brembs B, Heisenberg M . Conditioning with compound stimuli in Drosophila melanogaster in the flight simulator. J Exp Biol. 2001; 204(Pt 16):2849-59. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.204.16.2849. View

15.

Brembs B, Lorenzetti F, Reyes F, Baxter D, Byrne J . Operant reward learning in Aplysia: neuronal correlates and mechanisms. Science. 2002; 296(5573):1706-9. DOI: 10.1126/science.1069434. View

16.

Krichmar J, Edelman G . Machine psychology: autonomous behavior, perceptual categorization and conditioning in a brain-based device. Cereb Cortex. 2002; 12(8):818-30. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/12.8.818. View

17.

ORegan J, Noe A . A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness. Behav Brain Sci. 2002; 24(5):939-73; discussion 973-1031. DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x01000115. View

18.

Crick F, Koch C . A framework for consciousness. Nat Neurosci. 2003; 6(2):119-26. DOI: 10.1038/nn0203-119. View

19.

Edelman G . Naturalizing consciousness: a theoretical framework. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003; 100(9):5520-4. PMC: 154377. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0931349100. View

20.

Marinesco S, Duran K, Wright W . Evolution of learning in three aplysiid species: differences in heterosynaptic plasticity contrast with conservation in serotonergic pathways. J Physiol. 2003; 550(Pt 1):241-53. PMC: 2343019. DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.2003.038356. View