Bridging consciousness to our narrative brain: evolutionary insights.
Antonio Benítez-burraco, Francesco Ferretti
Frontiers in Psychology October 3, 2025 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1691355 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Language Consciousness Prosociality Storytelling Narrative brain |
| Key points | Argues that language and consciousness are intimately intertwined human-specific traits, with human consciousness construed largely as a kind of inner speech, while the most developed animal consciousness entails only first-person phenomenal experience and not language-dependent self-awareness. |
Abstract
There is a long tradition of (attempts at) bridging language and consciousness. Both are human-specific traits, even with precursors in other species, and both are intimately intertwined. Putting it very roughly, human consciousness can be construed, to a large extent, as a sort of inner speech (Morin, 2009; Skipper, 2022). By contrast, the most developed forms of animal consciousness only entail the ability to have first-person phenomenal experiences (of the sort underwent by animals that pass the mirror test), but not a language-dependent self-awareness.