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Articles 118711 - 118740 of 256032

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Studying Dog Emotion Beyond Expression And Without Concern For Feeling, Peter F. Cook Jan 2017

Studying Dog Emotion Beyond Expression And Without Concern For Feeling, Peter F. Cook

Animal Sentience

Studies of dog emotion have focused on the expression of social emotion, either because this is taken to suggest human-like feeling states in dogs or because it has been the most accessible signal of dog emotional processing. I argue for an approach grounded in affective neuroscience, relying on direct measures of physiology across different contexts. This work may be particularly fertile in exploring social emotion in the dog, not because dogs necessarily share human emotional states, but because they are unique in having likely evolved to fit a human social niche.


Inferring Emotion Without Language: Comparing Canines And Prelinguistic Infants, Stefanie Hoehl Jan 2017

Inferring Emotion Without Language: Comparing Canines And Prelinguistic Infants, Stefanie Hoehl

Animal Sentience

Research on canine emotions has to deal with challenges quite similar to psychological research on social and emotional development in human infants. In both cases, verbal reports are unattainable, and behavioral and physiological methods have to be adjusted to the specific population. I will argue that both regarding empirical approaches and conceptual work, advances in research on social-cognitive development in human infants can inform the study of canine emotions.


Positive Emotions And Quality Of Life In Dogs, Patrizia Piotti Jan 2017

Positive Emotions And Quality Of Life In Dogs, Patrizia Piotti

Animal Sentience

Positive affect is fundamental to ensuring good animal welfare. Discrete and dimensional theories of emotion have recently been used to explore the relation between cognition and affect and to develop cognitive measures of positive affect. Human quality-of-life assessment focuses on positive affect, which is difficult to measure objectively in dogs. Expanding on Kujala’s (2017) discussion of positive emotions and cognitive measures of affect, I suggest how these are relevant to assessing canine quality of life.


Consciousness In Teleosts: There Is Something It Feels Like To Be A Fish, Michael L. Woodruff Jan 2017

Consciousness In Teleosts: There Is Something It Feels Like To Be A Fish, Michael L. Woodruff

Animal Sentience

Ray-finned fish are often excluded from the group of non-human animals considered to have phenomenal consciousness. This is generally done on the grounds that the fish pallium lacks a sufficiently expansive gross parcellation, as well as even minimally sufficient neuronal organization, intrinsic connectivity, and reciprocal extrinsic connections with the thalamus to support the subjective experience of qualia. It is also argued that fish do not exhibit the level of behavioral flexibility indicative of consciousness. A review of neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and behavioral studies is presented which leads to the conclusion that fish do have neurobiological correlates and behavioral flexibility of sufficient …


Consciousness, Evidence, And Moral Standing, Irina Mikhalevich Jan 2017

Consciousness, Evidence, And Moral Standing, Irina Mikhalevich

Animal Sentience

Woodruff (2017) claims to have identified the neural correlates of phenomenal consciousness (“p-consciousness”) in fishes, and argues that these neurological data, along with behavioral evidence, suggest that teleost fishes are in all probability sentient organisms. Woodruff’s case may be strengthened by challenging key assumptions behind a common criticism of accounts such as his: that fishes cannot be p-conscious because they lack the cortical structures necessary for p-consciousness. A more serious objection to Woodruff’s proposal would be that his evidence for p-consciousness establishes only that fishes are “access-conscious” (“a-conscious”), where a-conscious states are cognitive representations that are made available to cognitive …


Battlefish Contention, Sean Allen-Hermanson Jan 2017

Battlefish Contention, Sean Allen-Hermanson

Animal Sentience

Contrary to Woodruff’s suggestion, investigations into possible reasoning capacities of cichlid fighting fish and trace memory in goldfish do not support claims about sentience. This is disputed by research results about learning and implicit processing, sleep, vegetative states, amnesia, semantic priming, artificial network modeling, and even insects. A novel, deflationary, interpretation of Grosenick et al.'s experiments on A. burtoni is also offered.


Animal Sentience? Neuroscience Has No Answers, Yoram Gutfreund Jan 2017

Animal Sentience? Neuroscience Has No Answers, Yoram Gutfreund

Animal Sentience

Woodruff’s target article provides a detailed review of comparative studies on brain and behavior in teleosts. However, the relevance of the scientific data to the question of consciousness rests solely on the validity of a small set of so-called "requirements for consciousness." I use the target article to demonstrate that the neuroscientific study of animal consciousness in general relies on external, highly questionable and unfalsifiable criteria, and therefore fails to resolve the question of which animal species are sentient. Fish behavior can be remarkably complex, but whether fish are conscious remains a matter of belief.


Sentience In Living Tissue, Alfredo Pereira Jr. Jan 2017

Sentience In Living Tissue, Alfredo Pereira Jr.

Animal Sentience

I agree with Woodruff’s concept of sentience but must disagree about what he proposes as the biological correlates of feeling. Based on the interpretation of brain function originally presented by Camilo Golgi, I assume that feelings are instantiated by hydro-ionic waves in living tissue. From this viewpoint, the anatomical, physiological and behavioural criteria of Woodruff would not be necessary to argue for sentience in fish.


Nagel-Ing Worries About Fish Sentience, Hugh Lafollette Jan 2017

Nagel-Ing Worries About Fish Sentience, Hugh Lafollette

Animal Sentience

Woodruff (2017) argues that teleosts’ more sophisticated behaviors make sense only if they are sentient. Moreover, their neuroanatomy, although different from mammalian, is sufficiently complex to support sentience. I answer some potential objections to Woodruff’s argument, and try to trace its moral significance. In so doing, I briefly address Birch’s (2017) target article as well.


Of Cortex And Consciousness: “Phenomenal,” “Access,” Or Otherwise, Scott A. Husband Jan 2017

Of Cortex And Consciousness: “Phenomenal,” “Access,” Or Otherwise, Scott A. Husband

Animal Sentience

From the perspective of a comparative neuroanatomist studying the avian pallium, Woodruff’s (2017) claims about the behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for teleost sentience blur the lines between phenomenal and access consciousness (Block, 1995). I discuss the bias that complex cognition can only arise in the cortical layering typical of the mammalian pallium and conclude that Woodruff makes a good case that the tecto-pallial connections in teleosts are sufficiently complex to support something like sentience.


Learning, Memory, Cognition, And The Question Of Sentience In Fish, Robert Gerlai Jan 2017

Learning, Memory, Cognition, And The Question Of Sentience In Fish, Robert Gerlai

Animal Sentience

Evolutionarily conserved features have been demonstrated at many levels of biological organization across a variety of species. Evolutionary conservation may apply to complex behavioral phenomena too. It is thus not inconceivable that a form of sentience does exist even in the lowest order vertebrate taxon, the teleosts. How similar it is to human sentience in its level of complexity or in its multidimensional features is a difficult question, especially from an experimental standpoint, given that even the definition of human sentience is debated. Woodruff attempts a Turing-like test of fish sentience, and lists numerous neuroanatomic, neurophysiological and behavioral similarities between …


Mental Representations Are Not Necessary For Fish Consciousness, Luis H. Favela Jan 2017

Mental Representations Are Not Necessary For Fish Consciousness, Luis H. Favela

Animal Sentience

Woodruff (2017) argues that teleost fishes are capable of phenomenal consciousness. Central to his argument is the assumption that phenomenal consciousness is representational in nature. I think the commitment to a representational theory of consciousness undermines Woodruff’s case for teleost phenomenal consciousness. The reason is that organisms do not need to perceive the world indirectly via mental images/representations in order to have phenomenological experiences. My argument is based on considerations of ecological psychology and comparative ethology.


Animal Models, Agendas And Sentience, Thomas Creson Jan 2017

Animal Models, Agendas And Sentience, Thomas Creson

Animal Sentience

Woodruff’s target article on teleost consciousness is a well-organized logical argument for considering the fish as a sentient being. This becomes more important for animal ethical discussion as the fish becomes a more important and legitimate animal model for investigating animal states and traits associated with higher levels of behavior such as learning and memory.


The Emotional Brain Of Fish, Sonia Rey Planellas Jan 2017

The Emotional Brain Of Fish, Sonia Rey Planellas

Animal Sentience

Woodruff (2017) analyzes structural homologies and functional equivalences between the brains of mammals and fish to understand where sentience and social cognition might reside in teleosts. He compares neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and behavioural correlates. I discuss current advances in the study of fish cognitive abilities and emotions, and advocate an evolutionary approach to the underlying basis of sentience in teleosts.


Fish Sentience: A Hypothesis Worth Pursuing, José E. Burgos Jan 2017

Fish Sentience: A Hypothesis Worth Pursuing, José E. Burgos

Animal Sentience

Woodruff’s case for fish sentience is intriguing. Though far from ready for final acceptance, it is worth pursuing. The case is philosophically uncontroversial under functionalism and reductive materialism. It is also highly heuristic, as it raises interesting issues for further investigation, such as the neural causation of behavior, the role of Mauthner cells in conditioned avoidance, and whether operant conditioning is constitutive of fish sentience.


We Still Need A Theory, Paula Droege Jan 2017

We Still Need A Theory, Paula Droege

Animal Sentience

Woodruff (2017) has compiled a convincing array of data to support his contention that teleost fish feel pain. However, in the absence of an explanatory theory about the nature and function of consciousness, a checklist of criteria is insufficient to allay skeptical concerns. I offer a theory that can explain why features like selective attention and behavioral flexibility indicate consciousness. Consciousness represents the present moment in order to allow dynamic changes in actions or goals in response to situational demands.


Similar Anatomy Does Not Imply Comparable Function, Jay R. Stauffer Jr. Jan 2017

Similar Anatomy Does Not Imply Comparable Function, Jay R. Stauffer Jr.

Animal Sentience

Woodruff concludes that ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) are sentient and that the pallium contributes to sentience in these fishes. He gives a detailed description of the pallium; however, he assumes that similar structures in fishes and tetrapods support similar behaviors, capabilities, and functions. I reject the premise that similarities in structure imply similarities in function. The fact that a selected species of fish may exhibit behaviors, reactions, and/or anatomy suggestive of sentience does not necessarily generalize to all teleosts.


Can Unconscious Brain Processes Indicate Sentience?, Vincent Taschereau-Dumouchel, Piercesare Grimaldi, Hakwan Lau Jan 2017

Can Unconscious Brain Processes Indicate Sentience?, Vincent Taschereau-Dumouchel, Piercesare Grimaldi, Hakwan Lau

Animal Sentience

We disagree with Woodruff that we have good neurobiological reasons to think fishes are sentient, because mechanisms for consciousness are controversial even in humans. To the extent that there are consensuses in that literature, they do not support Woodruff's claims.


Comparison Of Organic And Integrated Nutrient Management Strategies For Reducing Soil N2O Emissions, Rebecca F. Graham, Samuel E. Wortman, Cameron M. Pittelkow Jan 2017

Comparison Of Organic And Integrated Nutrient Management Strategies For Reducing Soil N2O Emissions, Rebecca F. Graham, Samuel E. Wortman, Cameron M. Pittelkow

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

To prevent nutrient limitations to crop growth, nitrogen is often applied in agricultural systems in the form of organic inputs (e.g., crop residues, manure, compost, etc.) or inorganic fertilizer. Inorganic nitrogen fertilizer has large environmental and economic costs, particularly for low-input smallholder farming systems. The concept of combining organic, inorganic, and biological nutrient sources through Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) is increasingly promoted as a means of improving nutrient use efficiency by matching soil nutrient availability with crop demand. While the majority of previous research on INM has focused on soil quality and yield, potential climate change impacts have rarely been …


Genetic Characterization Of The Soybean Nested Association Mapping Population, Qijian Song, Long Yan, Charles Quigley, Brandon D. Jordan, Edward Fickus, Steve Schroeder, Bao-Hua Song, Yong-Qiang Charles An, David Hyten, Randall L. Nelson, Katy Rainey, William D. Beavis, Jim Specht, Brian Diers, Perry Cregan Jan 2017

Genetic Characterization Of The Soybean Nested Association Mapping Population, Qijian Song, Long Yan, Charles Quigley, Brandon D. Jordan, Edward Fickus, Steve Schroeder, Bao-Hua Song, Yong-Qiang Charles An, David Hyten, Randall L. Nelson, Katy Rainey, William D. Beavis, Jim Specht, Brian Diers, Perry Cregan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

A set of nested association mapping (NAM) families was developed by crossing 40 diverse soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] genotypes to the common cultivar. The 41 parents were deeply sequenced for SNP discovery. Based on the polymorphism of the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and other selection criteria, a set of SNPs was selected to be included in the SoyNAM6K BeadChip for genotyping the parents and 5600 RILs from the 40 families. Analysis of the SNP profiles of the RILs showed a low average recombination rate. We constructed genetic linkage maps for each family and a composite linkage map based on …


Expression Of The Maize Dof1 Transcription Factor In Wheat And Sorghum, Pamela A. Pena, Truyen Quach, Shirley Sato, Zhengxiang Ge, Natalya Nersesian, Taity Changa, Ismail M. Dweikat, Madhavan Soundararajan, Tom E. Clemente Jan 2017

Expression Of The Maize Dof1 Transcription Factor In Wheat And Sorghum, Pamela A. Pena, Truyen Quach, Shirley Sato, Zhengxiang Ge, Natalya Nersesian, Taity Changa, Ismail M. Dweikat, Madhavan Soundararajan, Tom E. Clemente

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Nitrogen is essential for plant growth and development. Improving the ability of plants to acquire and assimilate nitrogen more efficiently is a key agronomic parameter that will augment sustainability in agriculture. A transcription factor approach was pursued to address improvement of nitrogen use efficiency in two major commodity crops. To this end, the Zea mays Dof1 (ZmDof1) transcription factor was expressed in both wheat (Triticum aestivum) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) either constitutively, UBI4 promoter from sugarcane, or in a tissue specific fashion via the maize rbcS1 promoter. The primary transcription activation target of ZmDof1 …


การวิเคราะห์รูปแบบการแสดงออกของโปรตีโอมและอินเทอแรกโตมเพื่อค้นหาสารบ่งชี้สำหรับโรคออทิซึมสเปกตรัม, ฉัตรระวี พิชิตพันธ์พงศ์ Jan 2017

การวิเคราะห์รูปแบบการแสดงออกของโปรตีโอมและอินเทอแรกโตมเพื่อค้นหาสารบ่งชี้สำหรับโรคออทิซึมสเปกตรัม, ฉัตรระวี พิชิตพันธ์พงศ์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

ในปัจจุบัน ออทิซึมสเปกตรัม (Autism spectrum disorder, ASD) ยังคงเป็นโรคที่ยังคงไม่ทราบกลไกระดับโมเลกุล แน่ชัด ยีนและโปรตีนที่เคยมีการรายงานการแสดงออกผิดปกติไปในผู้ป่วยออทิซึมสเปกตรัมมีความสามารถในการทำซ้ำ (Reproducibility) ต่ำหรืออาจไม่มีเลย ซึ่งน่าจะมาจากความหลากหลายของอาการแสดงของผู้ป่วย จากการศึกษาล่าสุด แสดงให้เห็นว่าการจัดกลุ่มออทิซึมสเปกตรัมออกเป็นกลุ่มย่อยตามความรุนแรงของลักษณะทางคลินิกสามารถช่วยในการระบุยีนและกลไกที่ผิดปกติไปในกลุ่มย่อยของผู้ป่วย อย่างไรก็ตาม การแบ่งกลุ่มผู้ป่วยเป็นกลุ่มย่อยตามความรุนแรงของลักษณะทางคลินิกใน ออทิซึมสเปกตรัมยังไม่มีการใช้กันอย่างแพร่หลายในการค้นหาโปรตีน Biomarker ที่เกี่ยวข้องกับออทิซึมสเปกตรัม ในการศึกษาครั้งนี้ ผู้วิจัยทำการวิเคราะห์โดยการแบ่งกลุ่มผู้ป่วยจำนวน 85 รายออกเป็นกลุ่มย่อยทางคลินิกตามคะแนน ADI-R และทำการวิเคราะห์รูปแบบการแสดงออกของยีนในออทิซึมสเปกตรัมในแต่ละกลุ่มย่อยเปรียบเทียบกับกลุ่มควบคุมคนปกติที่อายุใกล้เคียงกันและเพศเดียวกันกับผู้ป่วย (Sex/age-matched control) ซึ่งสามารถระบุยีนที่มีการแสดงออกผิดปกติ (Differentially expressed genes, DEGs) ในออทิซึมสเปกตรัม นอกจากนี้ ผู้วิจัยได้ทำการวิเคราะห์รูปแบบการแสดงออกของโปรตีโอมจากเซลล์ไลน์เม็ดเลือดขาว (Lymphoblastoid cell lines,LCLs) ด้วยเทคนิค Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) ร่วมกับ Nano-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (Nano-LC-MS/MS) รายชื่อของโปรตีนที่มีการแสดงออกผิดปกติไปอย่างมีนัยสำคัญที่ได้จากการวิเคราะห์ถูกนำมาเปรียบเทียบกับ DEGs และผลการวิเคราะห์ Meta-analysis ของโปรตีนและโปรตีโอมในการศึกษาก่อนหน้า หน้าที่ทางพยาธิสภาพที่มีความเกี่ยวข้องกับโปรตีนถูกวิเคราะห์โดยโปรแกรม Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) และได้ทำการคัดเลือกโปรตีนที่น่าสนใจมาทำการตรวจสอบโดยใช้ Western blot analysis จากการศึกษาครั้งนี้พบว่าผลการวิเคราะห์การแบ่งกลุ่มผู้ป่วยออกเป็นกลุ่มย่อยทางคลินิกตามคะแนน ADI-R สามารถแบ่งผู้ป่วยออกเป็น 4 กลุ่มย่อย ซึ่งพบว่าหนึ่งในกลุ่มนั้น เป็นกลุ่มออทิซึมสเปกตรัมที่มีความบกพร่องทางภาษารุนแรง จากผลวิเคราะห์รูปแบบ ทรานสคริปโตมของเซลล์ไลน์เม็ดเลือดขาว พบว่ามีจุดโปรตีนจำนวน 82 จุดที่มีการแสดงออกผิดปกติไปอย่างมีนัยสำคัญในกลุ่มออทิซึมสเปกตรัมที่มีความบกพร่องทางภาษารุนแรง และได้ทำการคัดเลือก 18 จุดโปรตีนจากทั้งหมดมาวิเคราะห์ชนิดของโปรตีนโดยเทคนิค Nano-LC-MS/MS ซึ่งพบว่ามีความเกี่ยวข้องกับการทำงานของระบบประสาทและกระบวนการอักเสบ จากการศึกษานี้พบว่าจากโปรตีนทั้งหมด การแสดงออกของ Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH2) และ Diazepam binding inhibitor (DBI) ลดลงในออทิซึมสเปกตรัม ซึ่งโปรตีนเหล่านี้ยังพบการแสดงออกผิดปกติในการวิเคราะห์ Meta-analysis ของทรานสคริปโตมและโปรตีโอมร่วมด้วย การแบ่งกลุ่มออทิซึมสเปกตรัมออกเป็นกลุ่มย่อยทางคลินิกตามด้วยการวิเคราะห์ทรานสคริปโตมและโปรตีโอมแบบบูรณาการร่วมกัน ทำให้การศึกษานี้สามารถระบุโปรตีนที่มีการแสดงออกผิดปกติไปอย่างมีนัยสำคัญในกลุ่มย่อยของออทิซึมสเปกตรัมที่มีความบกพร่องทางภาษาอย่างรุนแรง ซึ่งโปรตีนเหล่านี้อาจทำหน้าที่เป็นตัวแทนในการช่วยระบุกลไกทางโมเลกุลของออทิซึมสเปกตรัมในอนาคต ตลอดจน อาจพัฒนาไปเป็น …


Fish Are Flexible Learners Who Can Discriminate Human Faces, Ulrike E. Siebeck Jan 2017

Fish Are Flexible Learners Who Can Discriminate Human Faces, Ulrike E. Siebeck

Animal Sentience

In his book “What a fish knows” Jonathan Balcombe (2016a, b) has created a comprehensive profile of a group of animals still often thought to have a 3-second memory, no ability to feel pain, and a generally limited ability to learn. Chapter by chapter, Balcombe dismantles these and other such assumptions and makes a convincing case that fish have many abilities that are not that different from our own. Here, I focus on one example which supports the notion that fish are flexible learners and able to perform tasks which are generally thought to require the advanced processing power of …


Sensitizing Humans To Fish Sentience, Kelly Levenda Jan 2017

Sensitizing Humans To Fish Sentience, Kelly Levenda

Animal Sentience

Although fish can feel pain and suffer, they are not often protected legally. Jonathan Balcombe’s What a Fish Knows provides a timely and important contribution to the literature on animal cognition and sentience. By explaining their personalities and capabilities, Balcombe brings much needed public attention to fish and advances the principle that they need and deserve protection.


To Identify All The Relevant Factors Is To Explain Feeling, Arthur S. Reber Jan 2017

To Identify All The Relevant Factors Is To Explain Feeling, Arthur S. Reber

Animal Sentience

Several additional comments on Reber (2016a) have appeared. Like those addressed in Reber (2016b), they reflect points of agreement and disagreement on various elements of my Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC) model. Some, however, seem to have missed key points. I'm willing to take some responsibility for this. Perhaps I was not clear about some of the more radical points of the model. Hopefully the case-by-case review here will help.


Consciousness Is Not Inherent In But Emergent From Life, Jon Mallatt, Todd E. Feinberg Jan 2017

Consciousness Is Not Inherent In But Emergent From Life, Jon Mallatt, Todd E. Feinberg

Animal Sentience

Reber’s theory of the cellular basis of consciousness (CBC) is right to emphasize that we should study consciousness (sentience) in its simplest form, taking its evolution into account. However, not enough evidence is presented to support CBC’s unorthodox claim that even simple, one-celled organisms are conscious. As pointed out by other commentators, the CBC seems to be based on outdated ideas about evolution and does not acknowledge that consciousness could be an evolutionary novel feature. Such emergent features are abundant in living organisms. We review our own emergentist solution, in which consciousness evolved in the elaborating nervous systems of the …


What Can Research On Nonhumans Tell Us About Human Dissonance?, Jennifer Vonk Jan 2017

What Can Research On Nonhumans Tell Us About Human Dissonance?, Jennifer Vonk

Animal Sentience

Zentall’s thoughtful review of the literature on cognitive dissonance in nonhumans helps to highlight the common finding that similar outcomes in humans and nonhumans can be attributed to different underlying mechanisms. I advocate a more fully comparative approach to the underlying mechanisms, avoiding the assumption of shared processes in humans and nonhumans.


Establishing That Contrast Is Cognitive Dissonance, Travis R. Smith Jan 2017

Establishing That Contrast Is Cognitive Dissonance, Travis R. Smith

Animal Sentience

Zentall suggests that the same mechanism underlies cognitive dissonance in humans and the within-trial contrast effect in pigeons (and humans). The contrast effect has face validity in explaining cognitive dissonance, but more research is needed to establish construct validity. To determine whether both phenomena share the same mechanism, future research should test (1) whether both share physiological processes, (2) whether individuals who show sensitivity to one are also sensitive to the other, and (3) whether both phenomena are affected by the same changes in an independent variable.


Raising The Moral Consciousness Of Science, Bernard Rollin Jan 2017

Raising The Moral Consciousness Of Science, Bernard Rollin

Animal Sentience

Precaution on behalf of sentient animals should not be tempered by the questionable principle of the amorality of science.


Support For The Precautionary Principle, Jennifer Mather Jan 2017

Support For The Precautionary Principle, Jennifer Mather

Animal Sentience

The precautionary principle gives the animal the benefit of the doubt when its sentient status is not known. This is necessary for advanced invertebrates such as cephalopods because research and evidence concerning the criteria for sentience are scattered and often insufficient to give us the background for the decision.