Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
Neurotrope, Inc., 1185 Avenue of the Americas, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10036, USA.
Trends Plant Sci. 2019 Aug;24(8):677-687. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2019.05.008. Epub 2019 Jul 3.
In claiming that plants have consciousness, 'plant neurobiologists' have consistently glossed over the remarkable degree of structural and functional complexity that the brain had to evolve for consciousness to emerge. Here, we outline a new hypothesis proposed by Feinberg and Mallat for the evolution of consciousness in animals. Based on a survey of the brain anatomy, functional complexity, and behaviors of a broad spectrum of animals, criteria were established for the emergence of consciousness. The only animals that satisfied these criteria were the vertebrates (including fish), arthropods (e.g., insects, crabs), and cephalopods (e.g., octopuses, squids). In light of Feinberg and Mallat's analysis, we consider the likelihood that plants, with their relative organizational simplicity and lack of neurons and brains, have consciousness to be effectively nil.
在声称植物具有意识时，“植物神经生物学家”一直忽略了大脑为了产生意识而必须进化的显著程度的结构和功能复杂性。在这里，我们概述了费恩伯格和马拉特提出的关于动物意识进化的新假设。基于对广泛动物的大脑解剖结构、功能复杂性和行为的调查，确定了意识出现的标准。唯一满足这些标准的动物是脊椎动物（包括鱼类）、节肢动物（如昆虫、螃蟹）和头足类动物（如章鱼、鱿鱼）。根据费恩伯格和马拉特的分析，我们认为，具有相对简单的组织且缺乏神经元和大脑的植物具有意识的可能性实际上为零。
