Insects Are Conscious and Egocentric

[GennGreymane]

http://news.discovery.com/animals/in...gos-160418.htm

Insects are conscious, egocentric beings, according to a new paper that also helps to explain why and likely when consciousness first evolved.

Recent neuroimaging suggests insects are fully hardwired for both consciousness and egocentric behavior, providing strong evidence that organisms from flies to fleas exhibit both.

Consciousness comes in many levels, and researchers say that insects have the capacity for at least one basic form: subjective experience.

“When you and I are hungry, we don't just move towards food; our hunger also has a particular feeling associated with it,” Colin Klein, who co-authored the new paper, told Discovery News. "An organism has subjective experience if its mental states feel like something when they happen.”

Klein, a researcher at Macquarie University, and colleague Andrew Barron studied detailed neuroimaging reports concerning insect brains. They then compared the structure of such brains with those of humans and other animals. The resulting information is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Their work focused on the midbrain, a set of evolutionarily ancient structures that are surrounded by the gray folds of the cortex. The arrangement, they say, looks a bit like the flesh of a peach surrounding the pit.


“In humans and other vertebrates (animals with a backbone and/or spinal column) there is good evidence that the midbrain is responsible for the basic capacity for subjective experience,” Klein said. “The cortex determines much about what we are aware of, but the midbrain is what makes us capable of being aware in the first place. It does so, very crudely, by forming a single integrated picture of the world from a single point of view.”

Portions of insect brains work in a similar way to the midbrain in humans, performing the same sort of modeling of the world, the authors believe.

As for being egocentric, Barron explained that there is now compelling evidence that insects display selective attention to their processing of the world.

“They don’t pay attention to all sensory input equally," Barron explained. "The insect selectively pays attention to what is most relevant to it at the moment, hence (it is) egocentric.”

[Templar 331]

egocentric: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...ric+definition

"thinking only of oneself, without regard for the feelings or desires of others; self-centered."

.........did anyone think that an insect would be anything else?

[Serpha]

Great, now people can identify them self as insects, on top of being LBGQTTBBQ

[Deleted]

.........did anyone think that an insect would be anything else?

How about bees?

[Templar 331]

How about bees?

Good point. Wasps too.

[Deleted]

Good point. Wasps too.

Well hive life is in their best interests but insects are a broad term

[Blobfish]

Well that's it then.

Brazillians are killing thousands of Mosquitos before the Olympics
due to the Zika Virus

I will ban myself from watching the Olympics due to Brazillians denying "insect rights".

http://www.newsweek.com/zika-virus-b...-brazil-450562

[GennGreymane]

Well that's it then.

Brazillians are killing thousands of Mosquitos before the Olympics
due to the Zika Virus

I will ban myself from watching the Olympics due to Brazillians denying "insect rights".

http://www.newsweek.com/zika-virus-b...-brazil-450562

Its war bro.... wars are brutal and war.... war never changes

[Deleted]

It is pretty amazing considered that a bee have around ~1 million neurons. A piece of toy could probably have equal process power.
We cant even create consciousness with today's supercomputers - which are approaching the process power of the human brain. Wonder what the secret is (kinda miss Connal and his nanotubes btw).

[HardlyWaken]

Coming Fall 2016:

[GennGreymane]

and this has been ruined by the interweeeeb warriors

[HardlyWaken]

Not ruined, spiced up. d('-'d)

[Amunrasonther]

This goes well with my current bug standard of catching any bug in my house and putting it outside. The only insect I will kill are mosquitos. Thankfully I don't live in an area with poisonous insects.

[Elim Garak]

This goes well with my current bug standard of catching any bug in my house and putting it outside. The only insect I will kill are mosquitos. Thankfully I don't live in an area with poisonous insects.

That's racist. Just because of a few bad thugs you condemn the whole race of mosquito people to death.

[GennGreymane]

Not ruined, spiced up. d('-'d)

ノ(ಠ_ಠノ ) put away that spice

[Amunrasonther]

That's racist. Just because of a few bad thugs you condemn the whole race of mosquito people to death.

When they stop sucking blood I'll reconsider killing them lol.

[Powerogue]

I was under the impression insects were so miniscule what they have didn't constitute a "brain", and was just a series of nerves. How do you even fit a brain inside a gnat?

That's racist. Just because of a few bad thugs you condemn the whole race of mosquito people to death.

All the poor, endangered mosquitoes want to do is live in peace!

[Rudkobing]

Fuck insects.