{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]],"date-time":"2026-03-31T23:42:51Z","timestamp":1775000571190,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MIT Press","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,5]],"date-time":"2024-04-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1712275200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":95,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["direct.mit.edu"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p>The neural dynamics of subjectivity (NDS) approach to the biological explanation of consciousness is outlined and applied to the problem of inferring consciousness in animals phylogenetically distant from ourselves. The NDS approach holds that consciousness or felt experience is characteristic of systems whose nervous systems have been shaped to realize subjectivity through a combination of network interactions and large-scale dynamic patterns. Features of the vertebrate brain architecture that figure in other accounts of the biology of consciousness are viewed as inessential. Deep phylogenetic branchings in the animal kingdom occurred before the evolution of complex behavior, cognition, and sensing. These capacities arose independently in brain architectures that differ widely across arthropods, vertebrates, and cephalopods, but with conservation of large-scale dynamic patterns of a kind that have an apparent link to felt experience in humans. An evolutionary perspective also motivates a strongly gradualist view of consciousness; a simple distinction between conscious and nonconscious animals will probably be replaced with a view that admits differences of degree, perhaps on many dimensions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/jocn_a_02158","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,5]],"date-time":"2024-04-05T20:31:46Z","timestamp":1712349106000},"page":"1660-1666","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Inferring Consciousness in Phylogenetically Distant Organisms"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"36","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1519-3661","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Peter","family":"Godfrey-Smith","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Sydney"}]}],"member":"281","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.2102.04219","article-title":"What we are is more than what we do","author":"Albantakis","year":"2021","journal-title":"arXiv"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"6","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tins.2019.11.003","article-title":"Are there islands of awareness?","volume":"43","author":"Bayne","year":"2020","journal-title":"Trends in Neurosciences"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4150","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cub.2023.08.056","article-title":"Associative learning in the box jellyfish Tripedalia cystophora","volume":"33","author":"Bielecki","year":"2023","journal-title":"Current Biology"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"20190110","DOI":"10.1098\/rsfs.2019.0110","article-title":"Survival and selection biases in early animal evolution and a source of systematic overestimation in molecular clocks","volume":"10","author":"Budd","year":"2020","journal-title":"Interface Focus"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"473","DOI":"10.1016\/0013-4694(84)90077-4","article-title":"Ongoing compound field potentials from octopus brain are labile and vertebrate-like","volume":"57","author":"Bullock","year":"1984","journal-title":"Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"293","DOI":"10.1126\/science.ade5645","article-title":"Syncytial nerve net in a ctenophore adds insights on the evolution of nervous systems","volume":"380","author":"Burkhardt","year":"2023","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"102229","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isci.2021.102229","article-title":"Behavioral and neurophysiological evidence suggests affective pain experience in octopus","volume":"24","author":"Crook","year":"2021","journal-title":"iScience"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"185","DOI":"10.1093\/ilar.52.2.185","article-title":"Nociceptive behavior and physiology of molluscs: Animal welfare implications","volume":"52","author":"Crook","year":"2011","journal-title":"ILAR Journal"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib9","volume-title":"Consciousness and the brain: Deciphering how the brain codes our thoughts","author":"Dehaene","year":"2014"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e2205821119","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2205821119","article-title":"Motivational trade-offs and modulation of nociception in bumblebees","volume":"119","author":"Gibbons","year":"2022","journal-title":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A."},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3998\/ptpbio.16039257.0011.001","article-title":"Evolving across the explanatory gap","volume":"11","author":"Godfrey-Smith","year":"2019","journal-title":"Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"201","DOI":"10.5840\/philtopics202048110","article-title":"Gradualism and the evolution of experience","volume":"48","author":"Godfrey-Smith","year":"2020","journal-title":"Philosophical Topics"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib13","volume-title":"Metazoa: Animal life and the birth of the mind","author":"Godfrey-Smith","year":"2020"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e0276482","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0276482","article-title":"In the line of fire: Debris throwing by wild octopuses","volume":"17","author":"Godfrey-Smith","year":"2022","journal-title":"PLoS One"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"29925","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2010749117","article-title":"Oscillations in the central brain of Drosophila are phase locked to attended visual features","volume":"117","author":"Grabowska","year":"2020","journal-title":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A."},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1171","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cub.2023.02.006","article-title":"Recording electrical activity from the brain of behaving octopus","volume":"33","author":"Gutnick","year":"2023","journal-title":"Current Biology"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"19","DOI":"10.1159\/000353419","article-title":"How nervous systems evolve in relation to their embodiment: What we can learn from octopuses and other molluscs","volume":"82","author":"Hochner","year":"2013","journal-title":"Brain, Behavior and Evolution"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"20210292","DOI":"10.1098\/rstb.2021.0292","article-title":"As soon as there was life, there was danger: The deep history of survival behaviours and the shallower history of consciousness","volume":"377","author":"LeDoux","year":"2022","journal-title":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"354","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1468-0114.1983.tb00207.x","article-title":"Materialism and qualia: The explanatory gap","volume":"64","author":"Levine","year":"1983","journal-title":"Pacific Philosophical Quarterly"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2858","DOI":"10.1523\/JNEUROSCI.4623-06.2007","article-title":"Synchronization of neural activity across cortical areas correlates with conscious perception","volume":"27","author":"Melloni","year":"2007","journal-title":"Journal of Neuroscience"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"435","DOI":"10.2307\/2183914","article-title":"What is it like to be a bat?","volume":"83","author":"Nagel","year":"1974","journal-title":"Philosophical Review"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5","DOI":"10.1017\/S0952523813000035","article-title":"Eye evolution and its functional basis","volume":"30","author":"Nilsson","year":"2013","journal-title":"Visual Neuroscience"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"306","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.50.2.306","article-title":"Primitive nervous systems","volume":"50","author":"Passano","year":"1963","journal-title":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A."},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"129","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-023-06203-4","article-title":"Wake-like skin patterning and neural activity during octopus sleep","volume":"619","author":"Pophale","year":"2023","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"377","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cub.2015.12.033","article-title":"Signal use by octopuses in agonistic interactions","volume":"26","author":"Scheel","year":"2016","journal-title":"Current Biology"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"395","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2011.00395","article-title":"An interoceptive predictive coding model of conscious presence","volume":"2","author":"Seth","year":"2012","journal-title":"Frontiers in Psychology"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"459","DOI":"10.1093\/bjps\/axp046","article-title":"The vegetative state and the science of consciousness","volume":"61","author":"Shea","year":"2010","journal-title":"British Journal for the Philosophy of Science"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"952","DOI":"10.3389\/fphys.2018.00952","article-title":"Cephalopod brains: An overview of current knowledge to facilitate comparison with vertebrates","volume":"9","author":"Shigeno","year":"2018","journal-title":"Frontiers in Physiology"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"947","DOI":"10.1007\/s00359-015-1023-6","article-title":"The vertical lobe of cephalopods: An attractive brain structure for understanding the evolution of advanced learning and memory systems","volume":"201","author":"Shomrat","year":"2015","journal-title":"Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"261","DOI":"10.1016\/S1364-6613(97)01080-2","article-title":"Change blindness","volume":"1","author":"Simons","year":"1997","journal-title":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2389","DOI":"10.1111\/ejn.13796","article-title":"Neuronal oscillations: Unavoidable and useful?","volume":"48","author":"Singer","year":"2018","journal-title":"European Journal of Neuroscience"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"20140167","DOI":"10.1098\/rstb.2014.0167","article-title":"Consciousness: Here, there and everywhere?","volume":"370","author":"Tononi","year":"2015","journal-title":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"80","DOI":"10.1007\/s13752-013-0102-6","article-title":"The Cambrian explosion and the origins of embodied cognition","volume":"8","author":"Trestman","year":"2013","journal-title":"Biological Theory"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"321","DOI":"10.1002\/bies.20195","article-title":"The remote roots of consciousness in fruit-fly selective attention?","volume":"27","author":"van Swinderen","year":"2005","journal-title":"BioEssays"},{"key":"2025012114351353700_bib36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1049","DOI":"10.3389\/fphys.2018.01049","article-title":"Nociceptive biology of molluscs and arthropods: Evolutionary clues about functions and mechanisms potentially related to pain","volume":"9","author":"Walters","year":"2018","journal-title":"Frontiers in Physiology"}],"container-title":["Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/jocn\/article-pdf\/36\/8\/1660\/2456612\/jocn_a_02158.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/jocn\/article-pdf\/36\/8\/1660\/2456612\/jocn_a_02158.pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,21]],"date-time":"2025-01-21T14:35:27Z","timestamp":1737470127000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/jocn\/article\/36\/8\/1660\/120485\/Inferring-Consciousness-in-Phylogenetically"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024]]},"references-count":35,"journal-issue":{"issue":"8","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,1]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,1]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/jocn_a_02158","relation":{},"ISSN":["0898-929X","1530-8898"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0898-929X","type":"print"},{"value":"1530-8898","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published-other":{"date-parts":[[2024]]},"published":{"date-parts":[[2024]]}}}