Declaração de Cambridge
Declaração de Cambridge sobre Consciência
Neste dia de 07 de julho de 2012, um grupo proeminente de neurocientistas cognitivos, neurofarmacologistas, neurofisiologistas e neurocientistas computacionais reuniram-se na Universidade de Cambridge para reavaliar os substratos neurobiológicos da experiência da consciência e comportamentos relacionados, em animais humanos e não-humanos. Ainda que a investigação comparativa neste área seja muito dificuldade pela incapacidade de animais não humanos - e frequentemente humanos - para clara e prontamente comunicarem seus estados internos, as seguintes observações podem ser feitas inequivocamente:
*O campo da investigação sobre a Consciência está evoluindo rapidamente. Novas técnicas e estratégias de investigação para animais humanos e não-humanos foram desenvolvidas em número abundante. Consequentemente, um maior número de dados é disponibilizado com mais facilidade, o que obriga a uma reavaliação periódica de preconcepções que persistem neste campo. Estudos de animais não-humanos mostraram circuitos cerebrais homólogos correlacionados com a experiência e a percepção da consciência podem ser seletivamente acessadas e manipuladas para compreender se são de fato necessários à referida experiência. Além disso, novas técnicas não invasivas estão já disponíveis para mapear os correlativos da consciência nos humanos.
*Os substratos neuronais não parecem limitar-se às estruturas corticais. De fato, redes neuronais subcorticais que são estimuladas durante a vivência de estados afetivos em humanos, são também criticamente importantes enquanto geradoras de comportamentos emocionais em animais. A estimulação artificial das mesmas regiões do cérebro gera comportamentos e estados sentimentais correspondentes em ambos, animais humanos e não-humanos. Sempre que suscitamos comportamentos emocionais instintivos em cérebros de animais não-humanos, muitos dos comportamentos subsequentes são consistentes com a experiência de estados sentimentais, incluindo os estados internos compensatórios ou punitivos. Os sistemas associados ao afeto estão concentrados nas regiões subcorticais onde abundam as homologias neuronais. Ademais, os circuitos neuronais que suportam estados comportamentais/eletrofisiológicos de atenção, sono e tomada de decisão, parecem ter surgido tão cedo, no processo evolutivo, quanto a ramificação dos invertebrados, sendo evidentes em insetos e moluscos cefalópodes (e.g.: polvo).
*As aves parecem oferecer, de forma surpreendente, através do seu comportamento, da sua neurofisiologia, e da sua neuroanatomia, um processo de evolução paralela da consciência. Evidências de níveis de consciência próximo dos humanos têm sido, da forma mais dramática, observadas em papagaios cinzentos africanos. As redes e microcircuitos emocionais e cognitivos de aves e mamíferos parecem ser bastante mais homólogos do que previamente se pensou. Além disso, certas espécies de aves, como foi demonstrado nos padrões neurofisiológicos dos mandarins, exibem padrões neuronais de sono idênticos aos dos mamíferos, incluindo o sono REM, que se pensava exigirem o neocórtex dos mamíferos. As magpies [uma espécie de pombo], em particular, exibiram impressionantes similaridades com humanos, grandes símios, golfinhos e elefantes em estudos de auto reconhecimento da sua imagem refletida num espelho.
* Nos humanos, o efeito de certos alucinógenos parece estar associado com uma disrupção no processamento cortical de feedforward e feedback. Intervenções farmacológicas em animais não-humanos com compostos conhecidos por afetarem o comportamento humano, podem conduzir a perturbações similares no comportamento dos animais não-humanos. Nos humanos, existem evidências que sugerem que a consciência de algo, tal como na consciência visual, está correlacionada com a atividade cortical, o que não exclui possíveis contribuições do processamento subcortical ou cortical primitivo. Evidências de que sentimentos de animais humanos e não-humanos emergem de redes cerebrais subcorticais homólogas fornecem evidências de qualia afetivas fundamentais evolutivamente partilhados.
Declaramos o seguinte: “A ausência de neocórtex não parece excluir um organismo da possibilidade de experienciar estados afetivos. Evidências convergentes indicam que animais não-humanos possuem os substratos neuroanatômicos, neuroquímicos e neurofisiológicos de estados de consciência em linha com a capacidade de exibir comportamentos intencionais. Consequentemente, o peso das evidências indica que os humanos não são únicos na posse dos substratos neurológicos que geram consciência. Animais não-humanos, abarcando todos os mamíferos e aves, e muitas outras criaturas, incluindo os polvos, também possuem estes substratos neurológicos”
Original em inglês:
The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness **
On this day of July 7, 2012, a prominent international group of cognitive neuroscientists, neuropharmacologists, neurophysiologists, neuroanatomists and computational neuroscientists gathered at The University of Cambridge to reassess the neurobiological substrates of conscious experience and related behaviors in human and non-human animals. While comparative research on this topic is naturally hampered by the inability of non-human animals, and often humans, to clearly and readily communicate about their internal states, the following observations can be stated unequivocally:
*The field of Consciousness research is rapidly evolving. Abundant new techniques and strategies for human and non-human animal research have been developed. Consequently, more data is becoming readily available, and this calls for a periodic reevaluation of previously held preconceptions in this field. Studies of non-human animals have shown that homologous brain circuits correlated with conscious experience and perception can be selectively facilitated and disrupted to assess whether they are in fact necessary for those experiences. Moreover, in humans, new non-invasive techniques are readily available to survey the correlates of consciousness.
*The neural substrates of emotions do not appear to be confined to cortical structures. In fact, subcortical neural networks aroused during affective states in humans are also critically important for generating emotional behaviors in animals. Artificial arousal of the same brain regions generates corresponding behavior and feeling states in both humans and non-human animals. Wherever in the brain one evokes instinctual emotional behaviors in non-human animals, many of the ensuing behaviors are consistent with experienced feeling states, including those internal states that are rewarding and punishing. Deep brain stimulation of these systems in humans can also generate similar affective states. Systems associated with affect are concentrated in subcortical regions where neural homologies abound. Young human and nonhuman animals without neocortices retain these brain-mind functions. Furthermore, neural circuits supporting behavioral/electrophysiological states of attentiveness, sleep and decision making appear to have arisen in evolution as early as the invertebrate radiation, being evident in insects and cephalopod mollusks (e.g., octopus).
* Birds appear to offer, in their behavior, neurophysiology, and neuroanatomy a striking case of parallel evolution of consciousness. Evidence of near human-like levels of consciousness has been most dramatically observed in African grey parrots. Mammalian and avian emotional networks and cognitive microcircuitries appear to be far more homologous than previously thought. Moreover, certain species of birds have been found to exhibit neural sleep patterns similar to those of mammals, including REM sleep and, as was demonstrated in zebra finches, neurophysiological patterns, previously thought to require a mammalian neocortex. Magpies in particular have been shown to exhibit striking similarities to humans, great apes, dolphins, and elephants in studies of mirror self-recognition.
*In humans, the effect of certain hallucinogens appears to be associated with a disruption in cortical feedforward and feedback processing. Pharmacological interventions in non-human animals with compounds known to affect conscious behavior in humans can lead to similar perturbations in behavior in non-human animals. In humans, there is evidence to suggest that awareness is correlated with cortical activity, which does not exclude possible contributions by subcortical or early cortical processing, as in visual awareness. Evidence that human and nonhuman animal emotional feelings arise from homologous subcortical brain networks provide compelling evidence for evolutionarily shared primal affective qualia.
We declare the following: “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. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.”
** The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness was written by Philip Low and edited by Jaak Panksepp, Diana Reiss, David Edelman, Bruno Van Swinderen, Philip Low and Christof Koch. The Declaration was publicly proclaimed in Cambridge, UK, on July 7, 2012, at the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on Consciousness in Human and non-Human Animals, at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, by Low, Edelman and Koch. The Declaration was signed by the conference participants that very evening, in the presence of Stephen Hawkin, in the Balfour Room at the Hotel du Vin in Cambridge, UK. The signing ceremony was memorialized by CBS 60 Minutes
Original em inglês:
The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness **
On this day of July 7, 2012, a prominent international group of cognitive neuroscientists, neuropharmacologists, neurophysiologists, neuroanatomists and computational neuroscientists gathered at The University of Cambridge to reassess the neurobiological substrates of conscious experience and related behaviors in human and non-human animals. While comparative research on this topic is naturally hampered by the inability of non-human animals, and often humans, to clearly and readily communicate about their internal states, the following observations can be stated unequivocally:
*The field of Consciousness research is rapidly evolving. Abundant new techniques and strategies for human and non-human animal research have been developed. Consequently, more data is becoming readily available, and this calls for a periodic reevaluation of previously held preconceptions in this field. Studies of non-human animals have shown that homologous brain circuits correlated with conscious experience and perception can be selectively facilitated and disrupted to assess whether they are in fact necessary for those experiences. Moreover, in humans, new non-invasive techniques are readily available to survey the correlates of consciousness.
*The neural substrates of emotions do not appear to be confined to cortical structures. In fact, subcortical neural networks aroused during affective states in humans are also critically important for generating emotional behaviors in animals. Artificial arousal of the same brain regions generates corresponding behavior and feeling states in both humans and non-human animals. Wherever in the brain one evokes instinctual emotional behaviors in non-human animals, many of the ensuing behaviors are consistent with experienced feeling states, including those internal states that are rewarding and punishing. Deep brain stimulation of these systems in humans can also generate similar affective states. Systems associated with affect are concentrated in subcortical regions where neural homologies abound. Young human and nonhuman animals without neocortices retain these brain-mind functions. Furthermore, neural circuits supporting behavioral/electrophysiological states of attentiveness, sleep and decision making appear to have arisen in evolution as early as the invertebrate radiation, being evident in insects and cephalopod mollusks (e.g., octopus).
* Birds appear to offer, in their behavior, neurophysiology, and neuroanatomy a striking case of parallel evolution of consciousness. Evidence of near human-like levels of consciousness has been most dramatically observed in African grey parrots. Mammalian and avian emotional networks and cognitive microcircuitries appear to be far more homologous than previously thought. Moreover, certain species of birds have been found to exhibit neural sleep patterns similar to those of mammals, including REM sleep and, as was demonstrated in zebra finches, neurophysiological patterns, previously thought to require a mammalian neocortex. Magpies in particular have been shown to exhibit striking similarities to humans, great apes, dolphins, and elephants in studies of mirror self-recognition.
*In humans, the effect of certain hallucinogens appears to be associated with a disruption in cortical feedforward and feedback processing. Pharmacological interventions in non-human animals with compounds known to affect conscious behavior in humans can lead to similar perturbations in behavior in non-human animals. In humans, there is evidence to suggest that awareness is correlated with cortical activity, which does not exclude possible contributions by subcortical or early cortical processing, as in visual awareness. Evidence that human and nonhuman animal emotional feelings arise from homologous subcortical brain networks provide compelling evidence for evolutionarily shared primal affective qualia.
We declare the following: “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. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.”
** The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness was written by Philip Low and edited by Jaak Panksepp, Diana Reiss, David Edelman, Bruno Van Swinderen, Philip Low and Christof Koch. The Declaration was publicly proclaimed in Cambridge, UK, on July 7, 2012, at the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on Consciousness in Human and non-Human Animals, at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, by Low, Edelman and Koch. The Declaration was signed by the conference participants that very evening, in the presence of Stephen Hawkin, in the Balfour Room at the Hotel du Vin in Cambridge, UK. The signing ceremony was memorialized by CBS 60 Minutes
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