Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
W. Tecumseh Fitch, Colin Allen, Adina L. Roskies
4 citations
did consciousness evolve? Assuming that some species (e.g. humans) have consciousness and others (e.g. redwoods or mushrooms) do not, what problem(s) did consciousness evolve to solve? From a biological and evolutionary viewpoint, and regardless of which species have consciousness (or to what degree), this question of the adaptive function(s) of consciousness is central. Nonetheless, the...
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
Eva Jablonka, Simona Ginsburg
3 citations
We suggest that the emergence of consciousness in living organisms entailed new goals and new functions, which gave rise to a new category of selection, which we call mental selection. Mental selection involves ontogenetic choices that are directed towards consciously perceived and affectively evaluated patterns. It expands the types, targets and regimes of natural and sexual-social selection...
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
Kristin Andrews, Noam Miller
3 citations
We present the social origins of consciousness hypothesis, according to which the ability to coordinate with group members was the original adaptive function of consciousness. We offer three arguments. The phylogenetic argument presumes that consciousness is widespread among existing animals, and that widespread capacities are probably evolutionarily old. Early animals relied on consciousness...
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
Yuranny Cabral-Calderin, Julio C. Hechavarria, Lucia Melloni
2 citations
Understanding consciousness remains a significant challenge in science. What distinguishes conscious beings from unconscious systems, such as organoids, artificial intelligence or other non-sentient entities? Research on consciousness often focuses on identifying brain activity associated with conscious and non-conscious states, primarily in neurotypical human adults. However, this approach is...
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
Albert Newen, Carlos Montemayor
2 citations
The evolution of consciousness is a neglected topic that plays a surprisingly insignificant role in all major theories of consciousness. Furthermore, substantial disagreements can be observed in the dominant views on the neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs), which focus too much on cortical brain regions. In order to dissolve some of the contradictions among these views and to constrain...
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
Episodic memory in non-humans: an approach to understand an evolutionary function of consciousness.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
The exploration of consciousness in insects.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
The word ‘consciousness’ is often used as if it is a single thing, and as if everyone knows, in a general sense, what that thing is. The very notion of a theory of consciousness implies that someday this thing will be accounted for. But suppose that multiple kinds of consciousness exist. If so, an adequate theory of consciousness would have to be multifaceted rather than unitary. And,...
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 13, 2025
The physiology of interoception and its adaptive role in consciousness.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
February 1, 2003
Ami Klin, Warren Jones, Robert Schultz et al.
881 citations
Normative-IQ individuals with autism are capable of solving explicit social cognitive problems at a level that is not matched by their ability to meet the demands of everyday social situations. The magnitude of this discrepancy is now being documented through newer techniques such as eye tracking, which allows us to see and measure how individuals with autism search for meaning when presented...
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 1, 1998
How to study consciousness scientifically.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 1, 1998
Consciousness and the structure of neuronal representations.