The following article, Body an Self in Dolphins, a review of
self-awareness in dolphins as manifested in body awareness, is now
available on-line in the journal, Consciousness and Cognition:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10538100
under the section "Articles in Press." Those of you who can access
the journal and the article via your electronic library will also
have access to the supplementary material, which consists of five
video clips illustrating the paradigms used to examine the dolphin's
conscious awareness of its own body parts, its own behaviors, and the
behaviors of others. For those who cannot access the journal,
please send me an email and I will be happy to forward you a PDF of
the article, although the supplementary videos will not be included.
The citation is:
Herman, L. M. (2011, in press). Body and self in dolphins.
Consciousness and Cognition. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2011.10.005.
Abstract:
In keeping with recent views of consciousness of self as represented
in the body in action,
empirical studies are reviewed that demonstrate a bottlenose
dolphin's (Tursiops truncatus) conscious awareness of its own body
and body parts, implying a representational ''body image'' system.
Additional work reviewed demonstrates an advanced capability of
dolphins for motor imitation of self-produced behaviors and of
behaviors of others, including imitation of human actions, supporting
hypotheses that dolphins have a sense of agency and ownership of
their actions and may implicitly attribute those levels of
self-awareness to others. Possibly, a mirror-neuron system, or its
functional equivalent to that described in monkeys and humans, may
mediate both self-awareness and awareness of others.
Wishing everyone the best for the holiday season and for the New Year!
Louis M. Herman, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor, University of Hawaii
[email protected]
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