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Articles 4501 - 4530 of 10518

Full-Text Articles in Zoology

Enrichment Use & Social Interactions In A Mixed-Species Enclosure Of Sumatran (Pongo Abelij) & Bornean Orangutans (P. Pygmaeus) & Northern White-Cheeked Gibbons (Nomascus Leucogenys), Emily Veitia Jan 2017

Enrichment Use & Social Interactions In A Mixed-Species Enclosure Of Sumatran (Pongo Abelij) & Bornean Orangutans (P. Pygmaeus) & Northern White-Cheeked Gibbons (Nomascus Leucogenys), Emily Veitia

All Master's Theses

Enrichment is an aspect of captive husbandry that has been shown to positively impact animals’ well-being and can be designed to encourage species-typical behaviors, such as foraging and arboreality. Enrichment can include housing together multiple compatible species. Orangutans are sympatric with siamangs and agile and Bornean gibbons, so several zoos house these four Asian ape species in the same enclosure, in part, as social enrichment. In my study, I observed enrichment use and social interactions in a mixed-species enclosure at the Oregon Zoo, which housed two Sumatran (Pongo abelii) and two Bornean (P. pygmaeus) orangutans with …

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Individual Variation In Fear Behaviour, Rob Found Jan 2017

Individual Variation In Fear Behaviour, Rob Found

Animal Sentience

Individual variation in behaviour adds another layer of complexity to studies of animal responses to fear and risk, but when individual responses are consistent, and correlated with other behaviours, these patterns can provide a structure that furthers our understanding. I interpret Beauchamp’s review of vigilance and fear from the perspective of my own studies of elk personality. Wild elk responses to changing stimuli (benign or aversive) illustrate how personality is a key factor in explaining variation in vigilance and fear behavior. Personality even influences how wildlife can learn to assess risk and adjust their fear responses accordingly.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A Risk Assessment And Phylogenetic Approach, Culum Brown Jan 2017

A Risk Assessment And Phylogenetic Approach, Culum Brown

Animal Sentience

The precautionary principal is often invoked when talking about the evidence of sentience in animals, largely because we can never be certain what any animal is thinking or feeling. Birch (2017) offers a preliminary framework for the use of the precautionary principal for animal sentience combining an epistemic rule with a decision rule. I extend this framework by adding an evolutionary phylogentic approach which spreads the burden of proof across broad taxonomic groups and a risk assessment component which magnifies the likely impact by the number of animals involved.

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The “Precautionary Principle” – A Work In Progress, Shelley Adamo Jan 2017

The “Precautionary Principle” – A Work In Progress, Shelley Adamo

Animal Sentience

The target article by Birch illustrates the practical difficulties with the “Animal Sentience Precautionary Principle” (ASPP) while presenting potential solutions. However, the ASPP will be difficult to use without guidelines detailing how evidence of sentience should be assessed. Moreover, extrapolating conclusions found for a single species to all species within an Order is problematic. Finally, I recommend that Birch demonstrate his ASPP framework using a controversial test case to help show how it could be used in real-world situations.

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Not Statistically Significant, But Still Scientific, Rachael L. Brown Jan 2017

Not Statistically Significant, But Still Scientific, Rachael L. Brown

Animal Sentience

Birch’s formulation is persuasive but not nuanced enough to capture at least one situation where it is reasonable to invoke the precautionary principle (PP): when we have multiple, weak, but convergent, lines of evidence that a species is sentient, but no statistically significant evidence of a single credible indicator of sentience within the order as required by BAR. I respond to the worry that if we include such cases in our framework for applying the PP, we open ourselves to the charge of being “unscientific.”

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สัณฐานวิทยาและโครงสร้างรังของแมงมุมฝาปิดโบราณสกุล Liphistius Schiödte, 1849 ในอุทยานแห่งชาติแม่วงก์, วรัตถ์ ศิวายพราหมณ์ Jan 2017

สัณฐานวิทยาและโครงสร้างรังของแมงมุมฝาปิดโบราณสกุล Liphistius Schiödte, 1849 ในอุทยานแห่งชาติแม่วงก์, วรัตถ์ ศิวายพราหมณ์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

แมงมุมฝาปิดโบราณในสกุล Liphistius (Liphistiidae, Mesothelae) เป็นหนึ่งในสกุลของแมงมุมโบราณที่ยังคงมีชีวิตอยู่ในปัจจุบัน โดยยังมีแผ่นปิดท้องด้านบนที่แบ่งเป็นปล้องและมีอวัยวะสร้างใยอยู่บริเวณส่วนกลางของ abdomen การศึกษาเกี่ยวกับแมงมุมในสกุล Liphistius ในอดีตส่วนใหญ่ยังจำกัดอยู่เฉพาะในด้านอนุกรมวิธานเท่านั้น ในการศึกษานี้ได้ให้ความสนใจในการศึกษาลักษณะสัณฐานวิทยาและโครงสร้างรังของแมงมุมฝาปิดโบราณแม่วงก์ Liphistius maewongensis Sivayyapram et al., 2017 ซึ่งถือเป็นแมงมุมฝาปิดโบราณชนิดใหม่ของโลก โดยผู้ศึกษาได้ทำการเก็บตัวอย่างแมงมุมและข้อมูลทางกายภาพที่เกี่ยวข้องจากอุทยานแห่งชาติแม่วงก์ อำเภอคลองลาน จังหวัดกำแพงเพชร ที่ระดับความสูง 1,000–1,300 เมตรเหนือระดับน้ำทะเล ผลการศึกษาลักษณะสัณฐานวิทยาของตัวอย่างแมงมุมจำนวน 46 ตัวอย่าง (♀ = 24, ♂ = 22) พบว่าแมงมุมที่พบภายในอุทยานแห่งชาติแม่วงก์มีลักษณะโครงสร้างอวัยวะสืบพันธุ์ทั้งในเพศผู้และเพศเมียแตกต่างจากแมงมุมในสกุล Liphistius ที่เคยมีการค้นพบมาก่อน จากการศึกษาโครงสร้างรังของแมงมุมจำนวน 359 รัง พบว่าแมงมุมชนิดนี้มีการสร้างรังอยู่ 2 รูปแบบ ได้แก่ โครงสร้างรังแบบทั่วไปและโครงสร้างรังแบบตัว T โดยโครงสร้างรังแบบทั่วไปมีลักษณะเป็นท่อตรงมีทางเข้าออกทางเดียว ในขณะที่โครงสร้างรังแบบตัว T มีทางเข้าออก 2 ทาง จากการวิเคราะห์ทางสถิติพบว่าขนาดทางสัณฐานวิทยาของแมงมุมและรูปแบบโครงสร้างของรังมีความสัมพันธ์กัน โดยความยาวและความกว้างของฝาปิดทางเข้ารังและความลึกของรังมีความสัมพันธ์กับความยาวลำตัวของแมงมุม (Pearson’s correlation r = 0.80, 0.73, 0.51 ตามลำดับ n = 46, p < 0.01) แสดงให้เห็นว่าขนาดและความลึกของรังมีการเพิ่มขึ้นเมื่อแมงมุมมีการเจริญเติบโตและขยายขนาดลำตัว นอกจากนี้ chi-square test ยังแสดงให้เห็นถึงความสัมพันธ์ของขนาดลำตัวแมงมุมที่มีต่อรูปแบบการสร้างรัง (X2= 92.23, 2; p < 0.01) จากรังแบบตรงกลายเป็นรังรูปตัว T เมื่อแมงมุมมีอายุมากขึ้น จากผลการศึกษารูปแบบการกระจายของประชากรพบว่าแมงมุมฝาปิดโบราณแม่วงก์มีการกระจายตัวแบบกลุ่ม (Morisita’s index, Iδ = 2.76) ซึ่งสอดคล้องกับความสามารถในการกระจายพันธุ์ที่จำกัดของแมงมุมในกลุ่มนี้ และอาจบ่งชี้ให้เห็นถึงผลของ dilution effect หรือ selfish herd effect ที่อาจเกิดขึ้นในกลุ่มประชากรเพื่อตอบสนองต่อผู้ล่า การระวังภัยที่เพิ่มขึ้น และโอกาสประสบความสำเร็จในการสืบพันธุ์ อย่างไรก็ตามในการศึกษ

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An Integrative Description Of Mesobiotus Ethiopicus Sp. Nov. (Tardigrada: Eutardigrada: Parachela: Macrobiotidae: Harmsworthi Group) From The Northern Afrotropic Region, Daniel Stec, Reinhardt Møbjerg Kristensen Jan 2017

An Integrative Description Of Mesobiotus Ethiopicus Sp. Nov. (Tardigrada: Eutardigrada: Parachela: Macrobiotidae: Harmsworthi Group) From The Northern Afrotropic Region, Daniel Stec, Reinhardt Møbjerg Kristensen

Turkish Journal of Zoology

A new species of the Mesobiotus harmsworthi group is described from Ethiopia. An integrative taxonomy approach was applied by combining morphological and morphometric analyses-imaging under phase contrast and scanning electron microscopy with molecular analysis (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA and COI markers)-to cross-verify the status of the population as a new species. The specimens of Mesobiotus ethiopicus sp. nov. are most similar to two taxa of the harmsworthi complex: M. harmsworthi obscurus (Dastych, 1985) and M. peterseni (Maucci, 1991). Nevertheless, the new species can be easily distinguished from the first of these taxa by the absence of additional teeth in the …

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Spatial And Temporal Distribution Of Aquatic Insects In The Dicle (Tigris) River Basin, Turkey, With New Records, Fatma Çeti̇nkaya, Aysel Bekleyen Jan 2017

Spatial And Temporal Distribution Of Aquatic Insects In The Dicle (Tigris) River Basin, Turkey, With New Records, Fatma Çeti̇nkaya, Aysel Bekleyen

Turkish Journal of Zoology

We investigated insects of the Dicle (Tigris) River Basin in terms of their composition and spatiotemporal distribution. Larvae, pupae, pupal exuviae, and nymphs of insects were obtained from samples collected by a plankton net monthly during a 1-year period in 2008 and 2009 at seven different sites of the Dicle (Tigris) River Basin. A total of 35 taxa from the orders Trichoptera (1 taxon), Ephemeroptera (3 taxa), and Diptera (31 taxa) were identified. Chironomidae (Diptera) was the most diverse group and was represented by three major subfamilies, namely Tanypodinae (2 taxa), Orthocladiinae (19 taxa), and Chironominae (7 taxa). Among these …

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Sexual Dimorphism In Two Catfish Species, Mystus Pelusius (Solander, 1794) And Glyptothorax Silviae Coad, 1981 (Teleostei: Siluriformes), Hamid Reza Esmaeili, Golnaz Sayyadzadeh, Mohammad Amini Chermahini Jan 2017

Sexual Dimorphism In Two Catfish Species, Mystus Pelusius (Solander, 1794) And Glyptothorax Silviae Coad, 1981 (Teleostei: Siluriformes), Hamid Reza Esmaeili, Golnaz Sayyadzadeh, Mohammad Amini Chermahini

Turkish Journal of Zoology

Sexual dimorphism of two catfish, Mystus pelusius (Solander, 1794) and Glyptothorax silviae Coad, 1981, is presented based on the examination of external morphology of the fish and morphology of the gonads. We observed sexual dimorphism for M. pelusius in the shape and position of the genital papilla. In the male, the genital papilla was a small, fleshy, pointed and broad-based structure. The pelvic fin was short and did not reach back to the genital papilla. In females of M. pelusius the opening of the genital structure was without any protrusion or with a very small, dot-like structure in a few …

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Habitat Use And Activity Of European Glass Lizard, Pseudopus Apodus (Pallas, 1775),In Southeastern Bulgaria, Ivan Telenchev, Daniela Nikolova, Rossen Tzonev Jan 2017

Habitat Use And Activity Of European Glass Lizard, Pseudopus Apodus (Pallas, 1775),In Southeastern Bulgaria, Ivan Telenchev, Daniela Nikolova, Rossen Tzonev

Turkish Journal of Zoology

The way in which animals use the physical and biological resources in habitats is an important aspect of their behavioral ecology. Here, we studied the activity and habitat use of the European glass lizard in two habitats in southeastern Bulgaria during the spring and summer of 2015. We registered behaviors such as basking and movement, and we recorded hiding locations. We also attempted to capture the individual mark of every observed individual, to determine its sex, age, and body temperature, immediately at capture. In parallel, essential environmental parameters were identified: temperature of the air near the lizard, substrate temperature, dominant …

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Tarsonemid Mites (Acari, Heterostigmatina) Found In Association With Bark Beetles(Insecta, Curculionidae, Scolytinae) In Iran, Wojciech Magowski, Ali Ahadiyat, Hadi Ostovan Jan 2017

Tarsonemid Mites (Acari, Heterostigmatina) Found In Association With Bark Beetles(Insecta, Curculionidae, Scolytinae) In Iran, Wojciech Magowski, Ali Ahadiyat, Hadi Ostovan

Turkish Journal of Zoology

The authors report on the presence of species of the family Tarsonemidae in association with three bark beetle species (Orthotomicus erosus (Wollaston, 1857), Scolytus scolytus (Fabricius, 1775), and S. multistriatus (Marsham, 1802)) in two provinces in Central and Northern Iran. The following mite species are new for the fauna of Iran: Heterotarsonemus hajekae Smiley and Moser, 1985, H. magowskii Khaustov, 2001, and Tarsonemus crassus (Schaarschmidt, 1959). The genus Heterotarsonemus is newly recorded in Asia. The new record of H. hajekae is the second ever known in the world and H. magowskii is now established as new phoront of the bark …

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The Precautionary Principle: A Cautionary Note, Robert C. Jones Jan 2017

The Precautionary Principle: A Cautionary Note, Robert C. Jones

Animal Sentience

The precautionary principle regarding animal sentience is often used in decision-making about human actions that may cause harm to nonhuman animals. Birch (2017) develops an account of the precautionary principle requiring two pragmatic rules for its implementation. I support Birch's proposal but offer a cautionary note about relying on precautionary principles if one's ultimate goal is to emancipate animals from human domination.

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Skeletal Stiffening In An Amphibious Fish Out Of Water Is A Response To Increased Body Weight, Andy J. Turko, Dietmar KüLtz, Douglas S. Fudge, Roger P. Croll, Frank M. Smith, Matthew R. Stoyek, Patricia A. Wright Jan 2017

Skeletal Stiffening In An Amphibious Fish Out Of Water Is A Response To Increased Body Weight, Andy J. Turko, Dietmar KüLtz, Douglas S. Fudge, Roger P. Croll, Frank M. Smith, Matthew R. Stoyek, Patricia A. Wright

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Terrestrial animals must support their bodies against gravity, while aquatic animals are effectively weightless because of buoyant support from water. Given this evolutionary history of minimal gravitational loading of fishes in water, it has been hypothesized that weight-responsive musculoskeletal systems evolved during the tetrapod invasion of land and are thus absent in fishes. Amphibious fishes, however, experience increased effective weight when out of water – are these fishes responsive to gravitational loading? Contrary to the tetrapod-origin hypothesis, we found that terrestrial acclimation reversibly increased gill arch stiffness (∼60% increase) in the amphibious fish Kryptolebias marmoratus when loaded normally by gravity, …

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The Potential For Sentience In Fishes, Jay R. Stauffer Jr. Jan 2017

The Potential For Sentience In Fishes, Jay R. Stauffer Jr.

Animal Sentience

Balcombe’s book is filled with information on the biology, behavior, and life history of fishes. I do not agree with all his premises. I am still somewhat perplexed about the discussion of whether fish feel pain; I am not sure whether the distinction between nociception and pain makes any difference. Overall, however, his treatment of the principles of both natural and sexual selection is comprehensive and accurate, and has greatly increased my knowledge and awareness of the biology, ethology, and potential for sentience in fishes. In summary, this work has exposed me to new ideas about how to examine fishes …

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Genomic Perspectives On Amphibian Evolution Across Multiple Phylogenetic Scales, Paul Michael Hime Jan 2017

Genomic Perspectives On Amphibian Evolution Across Multiple Phylogenetic Scales, Paul Michael Hime

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Genomes provide windows into the evolutionary histories of species. The recent accessibility of genome-scale data in non-model organisms and the proliferation of powerful statistical models are now providing unprecedented opportunities to uncover evolutionary relationships and to test hypotheses about the processes that generate and maintain biodiversity. This dissertation work reveals shallow-scale species boundaries and population genetic structure in two imperiled groups of salamanders and demonstrates that the number and information content of genomic regions used in species delimitation exert strong effects on the resulting inferences. Genome scans are employed to test hypotheses about the mechanisms of genetic sex determination in …

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Rewiring Metabolism Under Oxygen Deprivation: Naked Mole-Rats Evolved A Means To Cope With Anoxia, Jay F. Storz, Grant B. Mcclelland Jan 2017

Rewiring Metabolism Under Oxygen Deprivation: Naked Mole-Rats Evolved A Means To Cope With Anoxia, Jay F. Storz, Grant B. Mcclelland

Jay F. Storz Publications

When faced with a reduced availability of oxygen in the environment (hypoxia), vertebrates can make a variety of respiratory, cardiovascular, and hematological adjustments to ensure an uninterrupted supply of oxygen to the cells of metabolizing tissues (1, 2). These are adaptive solutions for “aerobic organisms in an aerobic world” (3). Coping with the complete absence of oxygen (anoxia) requires more fundamental alterations of cellular metabolism that are typically nothing more than emergency stopgap measures to buy time until the oxygen supply is (hopefully) reestablished (4). On page 307 of this issue [Science 356 (6335)], Park et al. (5) identify a …

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Online Dictionary Of Invertebrate Zoology: Complete Work, Mary Ann Basinger Maggenti, Armand R. Maggenti, Scott L. Gardner (Editor) Jan 2017

Online Dictionary Of Invertebrate Zoology: Complete Work, Mary Ann Basinger Maggenti, Armand R. Maggenti, Scott L. Gardner (Editor)

Armand R. Maggenti Online Dictionary of Invertebrate Zoology

An exhaustive dictionary of over 13,000 terms relating to invertebrate zoology, including etymologies, word derivations and taxonomic classification. Entries cover parasitology, nematology, marine invertebrates, insects, anatomy, biology, and reproductive processes for the following phyla: Acanthocephala, Annelida, Arthropoda, Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Chaetognatha, Cnidaria, Ctenophora, Echinodermata, Echiura, Entoprocta, Gastrotricha, Gnathostomulida, Kinorhyncha, Loricifera, Mesozoa, Mollusca, Nematoda, Nematomorpha, Nemertea, Onychophora, Pentastoma, Phoronida, Placozoa, Platyhelminthes, Pogonophora, Porifera, Priapula, Rotifera, Sipuncula, and Tardigrada.

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Effects Of Cytokine-Induced Killer Cells On Concanavalin-A Induced Hepatitis In Mouse, Warakorn Srisantisuk Jan 2017

Effects Of Cytokine-Induced Killer Cells On Concanavalin-A Induced Hepatitis In Mouse, Warakorn Srisantisuk

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a chronic inflammatory disease of liver that the pathogenic mechanisms of AIH have not yet been clarified. All patients with AIH lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Presently the best feasible medicines of AIH need aid immunosuppressive medications and liver transplantation which have many side effects, high cost and sustained remission. Thus, immunotherapy is an alternative therapy in which cellular material is injected into a patient. Many previous studies showed cytokine induced killer (CIK) cells, T lymphocytes that have a phenotype of NK cells, have a potential to against several diseases associated with liver. The current …

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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 …

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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 …

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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.

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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.

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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 …

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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.

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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.

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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.

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