Cognitive Neuroscience Commons^™

Distinguishing Epistemic And Moral Grounds For Legal Protection, Carlos Montemayor

Animal Sentience

The criteria proposed by Crump et al. are based on various cognitive roles associated with sentience. A subset of them may be sufficient for certain kinds of welfare, but the presence of all of them should be considered as clearly sufficient for substantial kinds of legal protection based on their relation to capacities that we consider essential for moral standing in human beings.

Unconscious Humans, Autonomous Machines And The Difficulty Of Knowing Which Animals Are Sentient, Marian Stamp Dawkins

Animal Sentience

The framework proposed by Crump et al. still leaves much doubt about whether invertebrates such as crabs are sentient. For example, many complex behaviours - even in humans - occur without sentience. Also, simple machines could easily meet all of Crump et al.’s eight proposed criteria for sentience. Acknowledging the limitations of what we currently know about sentience is important both for formulating legislation correctly and for advancing scientific understanding of this most puzzling of biological phenomena.

Psychology: Hot Or Not? I’M Masking You., Mariah Boatman

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to multiple societal and behavioral changes, including the addition of mask wearing. This material covers the face from the bridge of the nose to the base of the chin, which limits the availability of facial cues that are often used in social interactions (Gori et al. 2021). Research has demonstrated cognitive recognition challenges, with mask wearing decreasing facial recognition abilities (Freud et al. 2020). Similarly, mask wearing has been associated with decreased ability to perceive facial emotions (Ziccardi et al. 2021). When information is missing, humans tend to try to “fill in the blank” to …

Emotionally-Charged Music Influences Attentional Bias Towards Positive Colors, Abigail Mitchell, Carole Scherling

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Emotionally-Charged Music Influences Attentional Bias Towards Positive Colors

Abigail Mitchell & Carole Scherling, PhD.

Abstract

Early-on, humans perceive music as happy or sad, and demonstrate concordant emotional responses (Dalla Bella, 2001). Colors themselves are also intrinsic to emotional experiences. Respectively, bright and dark colors associate with positive and negative emotions, and people are attracted to stimuli matching current mood (Becker & Leinenger, 2011). The current study used a modified Color Dot-Probe task to examined the influence of emotional music on color biases. The task involved looking at the central screen, where 2 color squares would appear to the right and …

A Radiofrequency Coil To Facilitate Task-Based Fmri Of Awake Marmosets, Kyle Gilbert, Audrey Dureux, Azadeh Jafari, Alessandro Zanini, Peter Zeman, Ravi S. Menon, Stefan Everling

Robarts Imaging Publications

Background: The small common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is an ideal nonhuman primate for awake fMRI in ultra-high field small animal MRI scanners. However, it can often be challenging in task-based fMRI experiments to provide a robust stimulus within the MRI environment while using hardware (an RF coil and restraint system) that is compatible with awake imaging. New Method: Here we present an RF coil and restraint system that permits unimpeded access to an awake marmoset’s head subsequent to immobilization, thereby permitting the setup of peripheral devices and stimuli proximal to the head.

Results: As an example application, an …

Flashbulb Memories Among College Students During Covid-19, Sabah Qureshi

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Flashbulb memories are formed through widely shared events that have affected the culture and community. The “flash” in flashbulb memories refers to the specific details that individuals have developed in their memories. The presented research focuses on the specific event of college students at the University of Central Florida (UCF) hearing about university closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This research study sought to identify the variables that have affected the accuracy of flashbulb memories formation regarding the event of college students hearing about university closure because of the pandemic. The variables of the students’ relevance to the university, location, …

Decapod Sentience: Broadening The Framework, Cecilia De Souza Valente

Animal Sentience

A framework for studying sentience in decapods is of great value, but how high a cost (in suffering) to each individual decapod (or any animal) is warranted for collecting scientific evidence of sentience? The lack of evidence for some of the target article’s proposed criteria surely results from the fact that research is focused mainly on biomedical studies, ecotoxicology, and commercial production, with decapod sentience and welfare seen as only a secondary research topic. I draw attention also to the possibility of a wider framework that includes all felt experiences, from suffering to pleasure.

Independence, Weight And Priority Of Evidence For Sentience, Elizabeth Irvine

Animal Sentience

This commentary maps out relationships of dependency between the criteria proposed in the target article (Crump et al. 2022), identifying the criteria that carry most of the weight of the evidence, and suggesting which criteria should have priority in research on sentience.

Decapod Sentience: Promising Framework And Evidence, Jon Mallatt, Todd E. Feinberg Md

Animal Sentience

Strong points of the target article by Crump et al. are that it offers clear criteria for judging whether decapods are sentient, an effective semi-quantitative grading system for this purpose, and an astute, critical review of the literature. It concludes plausibly that major subgroups of decapods are sentient. A minor problem is that it includes classical, Pavlovian learning as a marker of sentience along with the more valid marker of complex (e.g., operant) learning. Another minor problem is that it does not distinguish results that are negative because of likely absence of sentience from results that are negative because they …

A Framework For Evaluating Evidence Of Pain In Animals, Matilda Gibbons, Lars Chittka

Animal Sentience

Crump et al. define eight criteria indicating sentience in animals, with a focus on pain. Here, we point out the risk of false negative or false positive diagnoses of pain. Criteria of different levels of inclusivity are useful for using the precautionary principle in animal welfare considerations, and for more formal scientific evidence of pain. We suggest tightening the criteria -- from more general evidence of sentience to pain alone -- because crucial evidence for animal welfare decisions might otherwise be missed for animals subjected to invasive and injurious procedures.

Animal Sentience Research: Synthesis And Proposals, Andrew Crump, Heather Browning, Alex Schnell, Charlotte Burn, Jonathan Birch

Animal Sentience

Most commentaries on our target article broadly support our approach to evaluating evidence of animal sentience. In this Response, we clarify the framework’s purpose and address criticisms of our criteria. A recurring theme is that a framework to synthesise current evidence of sentience is not the same as an agenda for future directions in animal sentience research. Although future directions are valuable, our framework aims to evaluate existing evidence and inform animal welfare legislation.

A Horor Theory For Introspective Consciousness, Adriana Renero, Richard Brown

Publications and Research

Higher-order theories of consciousness typically account for introspection in terms of one’s higher-order thoughts being conscious, which would require a third-order thought—i.e., a thought about a thought about a mental state. In this work, we offer an alternative account of introspection that builds on the recent Higher-Order Representation of a Representation (HOROR) theory of phenomenal consciousness. According to HOROR theory, phenomenal consciousness consists in having the right kind of higher-order representation. We claim that this theory can be extended to introspection by recognizing that there is a distinctive kind of consciousness—i.e., introspective consciousness—which can be accounted for as the theory …

Mechanisms Of Memory Updating: State Dependency Vs. Reconsolidation, Christopher Kiley, Colleen M. Parks

Psychology Faculty Research

Reactivating a memory trace has been argued to put it in a fragile state where it must undergo a stabilization process known as reconsolidation. During this process, memories are thought to be susceptible to interference and can be updated with new information. In the spatial context paradigm, memory updating has been shown to occur when new information is presented in the same spatial context as old information, an effect attributed to a reconsolidation process. However, the integration concept holds that memory change can only occur when reactivation and test states are the same, similar to a state-dependent effect. Thus, in …

Beyond Homogenous Decision-Making Models: Role Of Brain Areas Interaction And Heterogeneity, Mohsen Rakhshan

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Most existing mechanistic models of decision making consider microcircuits within a homogenous brain area and fail to consider the distributed nature of this cognitive process. More specifically, these models do not take into account: a) how different types of information might influence choice in different stages of the process; and b) how interactions and the heterogeneity between circuits across different brain areas might be essential for the process. In this dissertation, I present a combination of experimental and modeling approaches to study distributed nature of the decision-making by examining both the distributed processing of information as well as the interaction …

The Role Of Word Knowledge In Error Detection: A Challenge To The Broken-Error-Monitor Account Of Dyslexia, Lindsay N. Harris, Benjamin Creed, Charles A. Perfetti, Benjamin Rickles

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Dyslexic children often fail to correct errors while reading aloud, and dyslexic adolescents and adults exhibit lower amplitudes of the error-related negativity (ERN)—the neural response to errors—than typical readers during silent reading. Past researchers therefore suggested that dyslexia may arise from a faulty error-detection mechanism that interferes with orthographic learning and text comprehension. An alternative possibility is that comprehension difficulty in dyslexics is primarily a downstream effect of low-quality lexical representations—that is, poor word knowledge. On this view the attenuated ERN in dyslexics is a byproduct, rather than a source, of underdeveloped orthographic knowledge. Because the second view implies a …

An Investigation Of Hhv6'S Impact On The Cognitive Progression And Microglial Changes In An Alzheimer's Disease Cohort, Charles E. Seaks

Theses and Dissertations--Physiology

The role of herpesviruses and, more specifically, HHV6 in the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and associated cognitive decline is still being investigated. High ubiquity and prevalence in the population have led to a high degree of skepticism about HHV6 as a potential contributor to cognitive decline and dementias. However, recent evidence related to another herpesvirus, herpes simplex virus 1, suggests that reactivation, not carriage, of the virus may be the key factor to explain the dissonance between the virus’ ubiquity and contributions to dementias. With that in mind, we set out to assess cases from the Sanders-Brown Center on …

Lack Of Imagination Can Bias Our View Of Animal Sentience, Brian Key, Deborah Brown

Animal Sentience

How an animal reacts to a sensory stimulus is often used to assess whether that animal can experience feelings such as pain and pleasure. This behavioural path is typically complemented with reference to how a human would normally respond to and experience an analogous stimulus. Together, these approaches can lead to a “hard to imagine otherwise” argument for feelings. It is time to go beyond these qualitative assessments and to now determine whether a nervous system can execute the neural functions necessary for sentience.

Legal Recognition Of Animal Sentience: The Case For Cautious Optimism, Jane Kotzmann

Animal Sentience

Rowan et al.’s target article provides a valuable indication of the work that was required to reach the point where animals are recognised as sentient in various laws. To ensure this work was not in vain, the language of sentience needs to be used as a moral currency to demand further cultural change involving greater human respect for animals.

All Living Organisms Are Sentient, Arthur S. Reber, Frantisek Baluska, William B. Miller Jr.

Animal Sentience

We argue that all living organisms, from the simplest unicellular prokaryotes to Homo sapiens, have valenced experiences—feelings as states of preference—and are capable of cognitive representations. Bacteria can learn, form stable memories, and communicate, hence solve problems. Rowan et al.'s statement that "Subjective feelings are just that — subjective — and are available only to the animal (or human) experiencing them" is true but irrelevant. When we see a fish flopping about in the bottom of a boat we immediately recognize suffering without having a glimpse of the nature of piscine distress. Some controlled anthropomorphism can go a …

The Science Of Animal Sentience And The Politics Of Animal Welfare Should Be Kept Separate, Marian Stamp Dawkins

Animal Sentience

Although linked historically by Rowan et al., the scientific study of animal sentience and political campaigns to improve animal welfare should be kept separate, for at least two reasons. First, the separation makes it clear that standards of evidence acceptable for ethical or political decisions on animal welfare can be lower than those required for a rigorously scientific approach to animal sentience. Second, it helps to avoid confirmatory bias in the form of giving undue weight to results that are in line with pre-conceived ideas and political views.