A recent study has shown that insects may have a form of consciousness, developing intriguing insights into the world of insects and the history of biology.
The study by Andrew B Barron (a cognitive scientist) and Colin Klein (a philosopher) was published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences and shows that insects have a slightly similar neurological structure to humans.
Researchers conducted the study by taking scans of insect brains. These scans found that just like human brains, insects have a “midbrain”. A midbrain is an important find as it is a part of the brain which is argued to support awareness and is associated with consciousness.
So what does this mean? Well, it seems as though even in tiny insect brains the midbrain serves the same function as it does for humans. This revelation prompts arguments that insects can tie together memory and perception- essentially “insect consciousness”.
This isn’t to say that insect brains have exactly the same structure as human brains, it merely shows that there are minor similarities. Their experience of the world will be nowhere near the same as a human’s. However, it proves that insects do feel and are likely to have a consciousness awareness of their surroundings.
While these revelations might not stop you from killing that pesky fly, it will hopefully be able to shed some light on the environmental demands that push insects to develop forms of consciousness.
