Christof Koch

Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness

Historic Proclamation of the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness in Human non-Human Animals at the Francis Crick Memorial Conference, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, July 7, 2012 The text of the Declaration is available at http://fcmconference.org/img/CambridgeDeclarationOnConsciousness.pdf The Declaration represents the conclusion of a scientific meeting, the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on Consciousness, with all the talks available at http://fcmconference.org/watch/ These talks contain peer-reviewed work by mostly experimental neuroscientists who are putting to rest preconceived notions of human exceptionalism, for the public and with hard data.

In 2012, a group of neuroscientists attending a conference on "Consciousness in Human and non-Human Animals" at Cambridge University in the UK, signed 

The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness.  

(Download a copy of the Declaration).

Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness

"The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states. Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Non-human animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates."