The question of consciousness in the animal kingdom

The study of the animal mind confronts science with fundamental questions that go far beyond biology. While we can at least assume its existence in our own consciousness, the inner world of other living beings remains hidden. This article examines the current state of research on the question of whether and how animals feel, and shows which ethical andscientific consequences arise from this. The debate has led to a remarkable change in the social and legal treatment of animals in recent years.

Emotional attachments as an indication of consciousness

Having realized the limits of our knowledge of the human mind, the question of the consciousness of other living beings arises with new urgency. Some animals, such as dogs, certainly pass a modified form of the test procedure that was originally developed to distinguish between machine and human intelligence. In assessing whether a being is overConsciousness, people usually pay attention not to computing power or memory capacity, but to the ability to form emotional bonds. Although people sometimes develop deep feelings for objects such as weapons, vehicles or clothing, these connections remain one-sided and never grow into real relationships.

The Challenge of Evidence

The fact that dogs can actively participate in emotional relationships with people convinces most dog owners that they are not mindless automatons. However, skeptics remain unaffected by this, as they point out that feelings are also computational methods and no known method requires awareness to function. When an animal has complexemotional behavior, it cannot be proven that this is not the result of a sophisticated but unconscious procedure. This argument could, of course, also be applied to people, because everything a person does could theoretically be the work of unconscious processes.

Searching for Neural Signatures

In humans, we still assume that we can believe someone who claims to be conscious. Based on this basic assumption, today we are able to recognize the brain patterns of consciousness and systematically distinguish conscious from unconscious states. As animal brains share numerous traits with human brains, we could, with increasing understanding,of these patterns may determine if and when other animals have consciousness. If a dog’s brain shows similar patterns to a conscious human brain, there is much to suggest that dogs also have consciousness.

Initial findings from research

Initial studies with monkeys and mice suggest that at least their brains show signs of consciousness. However, given the differences between the animal and human brains and the fact that we are still a long way from deciphering all the secrets of consciousness, it will be decades before we develop testing methods thatalso satisfy the skeptics. Until then, the question arises as to who should bear the burden of proof. Should we treat dogs as mindless machines until proven otherwise, or should we treat them as conscious beings as long as no one provides convincing evidence to the contrary?

The Cambridge Declaration

On the seventh of July of the year two thousand and twelve, leading experts in the fields of brain research and cognitive science gathered at the University of Cambridge and signed a joint declaration. It states that converging evidence suggests that non-human animals are more aware of the anatomical, chemical, and physiological underpinningsHave states as well as the ability to show intentional behavior. The weight of this evidence therefore suggests that humans are not the only ones with the neurological foundations that generate consciousness. Non-human animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including squid, also had theseneurological basics.

Legal recognition of animal welfare

This explanation does not yet speak to the fact that other animals have consciousness, because we still lack the definitive proof of this. However, it is now shifting the burden of proof to those who disagree. In response to this change of attitude in the scientific community, the New Zealand Parliament passed a law in May of the year two thousand and fifteenAnimal welfare, making New Zealand the first country in the world to legally recognise that animals are sentient beings. The law obliges to recognize animals as sentient and therefore to pay appropriate attention to their well-being in areas such as animal husbandry. In a country where far more sheep than people live, namely thirty million compared to four and a halfMillions, that is a very significant finding.

The extension of legal regulations

The Canadian province of Quebec has since passed a similar law, and other countries are likely to follow soon. Many companies also recognize animals as sentient beings, although paradoxically this often subjects the animals to quite unpleasant laboratory tests. For example, drug manufacturers often use rats as experimental subjects in the developmentmood-enhancing agents. According to a widely used experimental arrangement, you take one hundred rats for reasons of statistical reliability and put each one in a glass jar full of water. The rats keep trying to climb out of the jar, but without success. After fifteen minutes, most give up and stop moving.

The Experiment of Hope

They simply drift apathetically towards their environment in the vessel. Now you take another one hundred rats, throw them into the glass jars, but now fish them out after fourteen minutes, just before they despair. You dry them, feed them, let them rest a little and then throw them back in. The second time, most rats kick each other for twenty minutes,before they give up. The question arises as to why this extra six minutes arises. Because the memory of the past success triggers the release of some biochemical substance in the brain that gives hope to the rats and delays the onset of despair.

Finding the right substance

If we could isolate this one biochemical substance, we could use it as a mood-boosting agent for humans. But at every moment, countless chemicals flow through a rat’s brain. So how do we find exactly the right substance? To find out, you take another group of rats that were not involved in the previous experiment and inject eachGroup now a special chemical that is believed to be the hoped-for agent. Then you throw the rats into the water. If rats injected with Chemical A only kick for fifteen minutes before falling into gloom, Substance A can be removed from the list.

The humanization of animals

If rats injected with Chemical B struggle for twenty minutes, the investigator can tell the chairman and shareholders that he may have just hit the jackpot. Skeptics might object that this entire description humanizes rats unnecessarily. Rats experience neither hope nor despair. Rats sometimes movefast, sometimes they stop, but they never feel anything. They are only driven by unconscious calculation methods. But if that’s the case, what are all these experiments about?

The purpose of animal testing

Means for the psyche are aimed at changing not only human behaviour, but primarily human perception. When patients see a psychiatrist and say they want something to get them out of their melancholy, they don’t want mechanical stimulation that makes them row with their arms while they continue to feel great sadness.feeling cheerful. Experiments with rats can only help companies to develop such a magic pill if they assume that the behavior of the rats is accompanied by human-like emotions. And in fact, this assumption is almost always found in psychiatric laboratories.