Fish consciousness
Animal Sentience 2018 DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1352 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Commentary Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that neither neuroanatomical similarities between fish and humans nor the complexity and flexibility of fish behaviour can conclusively establish consciousness in fish, and proposes that judgement be suspended until mathematical theories of consciousness can reliably map conscious states onto physical states. |
Abstract
Woodruff makes two arguments to support his claim that ray-finned fish are conscious: (1) Fish neuroanatomy has similarities with the structures in the human brain that support consciousness. (2) The complexity and flexibility of fish behaviour suggest that they are conscious. This commentary will argue that neither the neuroanatomical nor the behavioural argument can provide conclusive evidence for consciousness in fish. We should suspend judgement until we have discovered mathematical theories of consciousness that can reliably map between states of consciousness and states of the physical world.
Citations in the library
Cites 5
- Neural correlates of consciousness: progress and problems Nature Reviews Neuroscience April 20, 2016
- Consciousness as Integrated Information: a Provisional Manifesto Biological Bulletin December 1, 2008
- The Neural Correlates of Consciousness Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences March 1, 2008
- Human and Machine Consciousness March 7, 2018
- Consciousness in teleosts: There is something it feels like to be a fish 2017