Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41229291›Full record

ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2025

Conscious birds.

Gianmarco Maldarelli, Onur Güntürkün

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. The exploration of consciousness in insects.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Review
  2. The evolutionary functions of consciousness.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Gianmarco MaldarelliDepartment of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-2753-155X
Onur GüntürkünDepartment of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-4173-5233

Funding

H2020 European Research Council
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In this article, we start from the assumption that consciousness is not the ultimate triumph of human evolution but rather represents a more basic cognitive process, possibly shared with other animal phyla. In this article, we show that there is growing evidence that (i) birds have sensory and self-awareness, and (ii) they also have the neural architecture that may be necessary for this. We present behavioural studies and recent neurobiological data and discuss them in relation to three major theories of consciousness: the Global Neural Workspace Theory (GNWT), the Recurrent Processing Theory (RPT) and the Integrated Information Theory. Although the findings so far do not allow for a strong conclusion, the neurophysiological and anatomical features of the avian brain seem to align with the prerequisites of the GNWT and RPT to host consciousness.This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary functions of consciousness'.

Indexed as

AwarenessBirdsBrainConsciousnessAnimalsBiological Evolutionavianbirdslateralizationpigeonprefrontal cortex

Identifiers

PMID41229291
PMCPMC12612704

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.