The entomology literature has historically suggested insects cannot feel pain, leading to
their exclusion from ethical debates and animal welfare legislation. However, there may be …

A new theory about the origins of consciousness that finds learning to be the driving force in
the evolutionary transition to basic consciousness. What marked the evolutionary transition …

Highlights•Insects provide a tractable model for the study of Pavlovian trace conditioning.•
Prolonged CS responses and US response anticipation mediate trace conditioning.• …

Over the past two decades, Ginsburg and Jablonka have developed a novel approach to
studying the evolutionary origins of consciousness: the Unlimited Associative Learning …

The minimal state of consciousness is sentience. This includes any phenomenal sensory
experience–exteroceptive, such as vision and olfaction; interoceptive, such as pain and …

Odour processing exhibits multiple parallels between vertebrate and invertebrate olfactory
systems. Insects, in particular, have emerged as relevant models for olfactory studies …

Learning which stimuli (classical conditioning) or which actions (operant conditioning)
predict rewards or punishments can improve chances of survival. However, the circuit …

Animals routinely learn to associate environmental stimuli and self-generated actions with
their outcomes such as rewards. One of the most popular theoretical models of such …

Extinction learning, the ability to update previously learned information by integrating novel
contradictory information, is of high clinical relevance for therapeutic approaches to the …

Trace conditioning involves the pairing of a neutral conditioned stimulus (CS), followed by a
short interval with a motivationally significant unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Recently, trace …