David B. Edelman, Reconstructing the Natural History of Awareness
March 25, 2023 16:00 GMT / 12:00 EDT/ 09:00 PST
Reconstructing the Natural History of Awareness: The Octopus as Muse and Guide
Cephalopod molluscs—particularly the octopus—have fascinated people across many cultures for thousands of years. Though their appearance seems utterly alien to our human sensibilities, there is something strangely familiar and engaging about the countenance and behavior of these tantalizing animals. In this talk, David will begin by reviewing his own work, as well as recent revelations by other researchers regarding the nervous system and behavior of the octopus. He will then explain why this animal—certainly the most complex of all invertebrates—may provide a plausible window into the origins of sensory awareness, as well as a useful model for studying consciousness in animals without backbones.
Neuroscientist David Edelman is a Senior Scientist at the Association for Cephalopod Research (CephRes) Naples, Italy and currently serves on that organization’s board. From 2017-2022, he was a visiting scholar in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College. David has been fascinated by the sensory experiences and inner lives of cephalopod molluscs since his first encounter with an unusually curious common octopus (O. vulgaris) at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn di Napoli (SZN) in 2009. Together with colleagues at Dartmouth College and the SZN, he has explored visual perception, learning, and memory in these cephalopods using a video-based psychophysical approach.
Over nearly two decades, three questions have guided David’s scientific journey:
How and when did consciousness first evolve?
What is the nature of conscious experience for non-human animals?
How can we investigate conscious experience in animals without something akin to human language?
