The emergence of consciousness in phylogeny.
Abstract
The brains of animals show chemical, anatomical, and functional differences, such as dopamine production and structure of sleep, between Amniota and older groups. In addition, play behavior, capacity to acquire taste aversion, sensory pleasure in decision making, and expression of emotional tachycardia and fever started also to be displayed by Amniota, suggesting that the brain may have began to work differently in early Amniota than in Lissamphibia and earlier vertebrates. Thus we propose that emotion, and more broadly speaking consciousness, emerged in the evolutionary line among the early Amniota. We also propose that consciousness is characterized by a common mental pathway that uses pleasure, or its counterpart displeasure, as a means to optimize behavior.
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Consciousness in vertebrates is generally assumed to track the evolution of the neocortex, placing its origins near the base of the amniotes among early terrestrial vertebrates.
“Consciousness in vertebrates, in contrast, is generally assumed to track the evolution of the neocortex, which would place its origins near the base of the amniotes, among early terrestrial vertebrates (Cabanac et al., 2009; Allen and Trestman, 2020).”
From The function(s) of consciousness revisited: insights from a modular/constitutive model using vision as a test case (2026) · cites this paper as Cabanac et al., 2009
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“Consciousness in vertebrates, in contrast, is generally assumed to track the evolution of the neocortex, which would place its origins near the base of the amniotes, among early terrestrial vertebrates (Cabanac et al., 2009; Allen and Trestman, 2020).”
- Authors
- Cabanac, M., Cabanac, A. J., & Parent, A.
- Affiliations
- Université Laval (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Cabanac, Michel
- Venue
- Behavioural Brain Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-03
- Volume
- 198
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 267-272
- ISSN
- 0166-4328 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2043329369
- Cited by
- 185
- References
- 64
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 0.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Behavioural Brain Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- consciousness, evolution of consciousness, amniotes, emotions, play behavior, taste aversion, dopamine, sleep, fever, pleasure, vertebrate brain evolution, Lissamphibia
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Brain, Consciousness, Decision Making, Dopamine, Emotions, Phylogeny, Sleep, Species Specificity, Neurotransmitter Agents
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