Foundations of Animal Sentience

Project Information

ASENT

Grant agreement ID: 851145

DOI

10.3030/851145

Project closed

EC signature date 7 October 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 30 June 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 499 864,00

EU contribution

€ 1 499 864,00

Coordinated by

LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
United Kingdom

CORDIS provides links to public deliverables and publications of HORIZON projects.

Links to deliverables and publications from FP7 projects, as well as links to some specific result types such as dataset and software, are dynamically retrieved from OpenAIRE .

Deliverables

Open Research Data Pilot (1)

Data Management Plan

Publications

Book chapters (1)

Can insects feel pain? A review of the neural and behavioural evidence

Author(s): Gibbons, Matilda; Crump, Andrew; Barrett, Meghan; Sarlak, Sajedah; Birch, Jonathan; Chittka, Lars
Published in: Advances in Insect Physiology, 2025, Page(s) 155-229
Publisher: Elsevier
DOI: 10.1016/bs.aiip.2022.10.001

Non-peer reviewed articles (13)

Neural organoids and the precautionary principle

Author(s): Birch, Jonathan; Browning, Heather
Published in: American Journal of Bioethics, Issue 21, 2021, Page(s) 56-58, ISSN 1526-5161
Publisher: MIT Press
DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2020.1845858

Animal sentience and the Capabilities Approach to justice

Author(s): eva read, Jonathan Birch
Published in: Biology & Philosophy, Issue 38, 2023, ISSN 0169-3867
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
DOI: 10.1007/s10539-023-09914-0

Animal sentience research: Synthesis and proposals

Author(s): Andrew Crump, Heather Browning, Alex Schnell, Charlotte Burn, Jonathan Birch
Published in: Animal Sentience, Issue 7, 2025, ISSN 2377-7478
Publisher: WellBeing International Publications
DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1770

IV—Emotionless Animals? Constructionist Theories of Emotion Beyond the Human Case

Author(s): Jonathan Birch
Published in: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Issue 124, 2024, Page(s) 71-94, ISSN 0066-7374
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Inc.
DOI: 10.1093/arisoc/aoae003

To test the boundaries of consciousness, study animals

Author(s): Simon A.B. Brown, Elizabeth S. Paul, Jonathan Birch
Published in: Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Issue 28, 2024, Page(s) 874-875, ISSN 1364-6613
Publisher: Elsevier BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2024.06.003

Disentangling sentience from developmental plasticity

Author(s): Jonathan Birch
Published in: Animal Sentience, Issue 8, 2025, ISSN 2377-7478
Publisher: WellBeing International Publications
DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1812

Sentience and the science–policy nexus: Replies to Wandrey and Halina, and Bayne

Author(s): Jonathan Birch
Published in: Mind & Language, 2025, ISSN 0268-1064
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Inc.
DOI: 10.1111/mila.12552

Sentience and the science-policy interface

Author(s): Birch, Jonathan
Published in: Animal Sentience, Issue 6, 2022, Page(s) 10, ISSN 2377-7478
Publisher: Wellbeing International
DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1718

Animal sentience science and policy

Author(s): Crump, Andrew
Published in: Animal Sentience, Issue 6, 2022, Page(s) 15, ISSN 2377-7478
Publisher: WellBeing International
DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1748

The learning-consciousness connection

Author(s): Birch, Jonathan; Ginsburg, Simona; Jablonka, Eva
Published in: Biology & Philosophy, Issue 36, 2021, Page(s) 49, ISSN 0169-3867
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
DOI: 10.1007/s10539-021-09802-5

Separating conscious and unconscious perception in animals

Author(s): Crump, Andrew; Birch, Jonathan
Published in: Learning & Behavior, Issue 49, 2021, Page(s) 347-348, ISSN 1543-4494
Publisher: Psychonomic Society Inc.
DOI: 10.3758/s13420-021-00479-0

The lights and shadows of consciousness

Author(s): Birch, Jonathan; Crump, Andrew
Published in: Current Biology, Issue 32, 2022, Page(s) R759-R761, ISSN 0960-9822
Publisher: Cell Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.055

Zones of precaution

Author(s): Jonathan Birch
Published in: Animal Sentience, Issue 5, 2025, ISSN 2377-7478
Publisher: WellBeing International Publications
DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1605

Peer reviewed articles (36)

Why might animals remember? A functional framework for episodic memory research in comparative psychology

Author(s): Alexandria Boyle, Simon A. B. Brown
Published in: Learning & Behavior, Issue 53, 2025, Page(s) 14-30, ISSN 1543-4494
Publisher: Psychonomic Society Inc.
DOI: 10.3758/s13420-024-00645-0

Assessing measures of animal welfare

Author(s): Heather Browning
Published in: Biology & Philosophy, Issue 37, 2023, Page(s) 36, ISSN 0169-3867
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
DOI: 10.1007/s10539-022-09862-1

Noxious stimulation induces self-protective behaviour in bumblebees

Author(s): Matilda Gibbons, Elisa Pasquini, Amelia Kowalewska, Eva Read, Sam Gibson, Andrew Crump, Cwyn Solvi, Elisabetta Versace, Lars Chittka
Published in: iScience, Issue 27, 2025, Page(s) 110440, ISSN 2589-0042
Publisher: Cell Press
DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.15.575734

Freedom and animal welfare

Author(s): Browning, Heather; Veit, Walter
Published in: Animals, Issue 11, 2021, Page(s) 1148, ISSN 2076-2615
Publisher: MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ani11041148

Optimism and pasture access in dairy cows

Author(s): Crump, A.; Jenkins, K.; Bethell, E .J.; Ferris, C. P.; Kabboush, H.; Weller, J.; Arnott, G.
Published in: Scientific Reports, Issue 11, 2021, Page(s) 4882, ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-84371-x

Unlimited Associative Learning and the origins of consciousness: a primer and some predictions

Author(s): Birch, Jonathan; Ginsburg, Simona; Jablonka, Eva
Published in: Biology & Philosophy, Issue 35, 2020, Page(s) 6, ISSN 0169-3867
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
DOI: 10.1007/s10539-020-09772-0

The sentience shift in animal research

Author(s): Browning, Heather; Veit, Walter
Published in: The New Bioethics, 2022, ISSN 2050-2877
Publisher: Maney Publishing
DOI: 10.1080/20502877.2022.2077681

The search for invertebrate consciousness

Author(s): Birch, Jonathan
Published in: Noûs, Issue 56, 2022, Page(s) 133-153, ISSN 0029-4624
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
DOI: 10.1111/nous.12351

Animal consciousness: The interplay of neural and behavioural evidence.

Author(s): Crump, Andrew; Birch, Jonathan
Published in: Journal of Consciousness Studies, Issue 29, 2022, Page(s) 104-128, ISSN 1355-8250
Publisher: Imprint Academic

Pasture access and eye temperature in dairy cows

Author(s): Crump, Andrew; Jenkins, Kirsty; Bethell, Emily J.; Ferris, Conrad P.; Arnott, Gareth
Published in: Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 2022, ISSN 1088-8705
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
DOI: 10.1080/10888705.2022.2063020

The hatching of consciousness

Author(s): Birch, Jonathan
Published in: History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, Issue 43, 2021, Page(s) 121, ISSN 0391-9714
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1007/s40656-021-00472-w

The measurability of subjective animal welfare

Author(s): Browning, Heather
Published in: Journal of Consciousness Studies, Issue 29, 2022, Page(s) 150-179, ISSN 1355-8250
Publisher: Imprint Academic

Invertebrate sentience and sustainable seafood

Author(s): Andrew Crump, Heather Browning, Alexandra K. Schnell, Charlotte Burn, Jonathan Birch
Published in: Nature Food, Issue 3, 2022, Page(s) 884-886, ISSN 2662-1355
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
DOI: 10.1038/s43016-022-00632-6

How to get rich from inflation

Author(s): Simon Alexander Burns Brown
Published in: Consciousness and Cognition, Issue 117, 2024, Page(s) 103624, ISSN 1053-8100
Publisher: Academic Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2023.103624

The measurement problem of consciousness

Author(s): Browning, Heather; Veit, Walter
Published in: Philosophical Topics, Issue 48, 2020, Page(s) 85-108, ISSN 0276-2080
Publisher: The University of Arkansas Press
DOI: 10.5840/philtopics20204815

Validating Indicators of Subjective Animal Welfare

Author(s): Heather Browning
Published in: Philosophy of Science, Issue 90, 2024, Page(s) 1255-1264, ISSN 0031-8248
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
DOI: 10.1017/psa.2023.10

Medical AI, inductive risk and the communication of uncertainty: the case of disorders of consciousness

Author(s): Jonathan Birch
Published in: Journal of Medical Ethics, 2024, Page(s) jme-2023-109424, ISSN 0306-6800
Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1136/jme-2023-109424

The importance of end-of-life welfare

Author(s): Browning, Heather; Veit, Walter
Published in: Animal Frontiers, Issue 12, 2022, Page(s) 8-15, ISSN 2160-6056
Publisher: Oxford Academic
DOI: 10.1093/af/vfab078

Dimensions of animal consciousness

Author(s): Birch, Jonathan; Schnell, Alexandra K.; Clayton, Nicola S.
Published in: Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Issue 24, 2020, Page(s) P789-801, ISSN 1364-6613
Publisher: Elsevier BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.07.007

When is a brain organoid a sentience candidate?

Author(s): Jonathan Birch
Published in: Molecular Psychology: Brain, Behavior, and Society, Issue 2, 2024, Page(s) 22, ISSN 2752-8286
Publisher: F1000 Research Ltd
DOI: 10.12688/molpsychol.17524.1

Animal welfare risks from commercial practices involving cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans

Author(s): Heather Browning, Charlotte Burn, Alexandra K Schnell, Andrew Crump, Jonathan Birch
Published in: Animal Welfare, Issue 34, 2025, ISSN 0962-7286
Publisher: Universities Federation for Animal Welfare
DOI: 10.1017/awf.2025.25

Evaluating animal consciousness

Author(s): Kristin Andrews, Jonathan Birch, Jeff Sebo
Published in: Science, Issue 387, 2025, Page(s) 822-824, ISSN 0036-8075
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
DOI: 10.1126/science.adp4990

Emotion in animal contests

Author(s): Crump, A.; Bethell, E. J.; Earley, R.; Lee, V. E.; Mendl, M.; Oldham, L.; Turner, S. P.; Arnott, G.
Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, Issue 287, 2020, Page(s) 20201715, ISSN 0962-8452
Publisher: Royal Society of London
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1715

Global workspace theory and animal consciousness

Author(s): Birch, Jonathan
Published in: Philosophical Topics, Issue 48, 2020, Page(s) 21-37, ISSN 0276-2080
Publisher: The University of Arkansas Press
DOI: 10.5840/philtopics20204812

Welfare comparisons within and across species

Author(s): Heather Browning
Published in: Philosophical Studies, Issue 180, 2023, Page(s) 529-551, ISSN 0031-8116
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
DOI: 10.1007/s11098-022-01907-1

Materialism and the moral status of animals

Author(s): Birch, Jonathan
Published in: The Philosophical Quarterly, 2022, ISSN 1467-9213
Publisher: Oxford Academic
DOI: 10.1093/pq/pqab072

Positive Wild Animal Welfare

Author(s): Heather Browning, Walter Veit
Published in: Biology & Philosophy, Issue 38, 2023, Page(s) 14, ISSN 0169-3867
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
DOI: 10.1007/s10539-023-09901-5

Should animal welfare be defined in terms of consciousness?

Author(s): Birch, Jonathan
Published in: Philosophy of Science, 2022, ISSN 0031-8248
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
DOI: 10.1017/psa.2022.59

Is it time for insect researchers to consider their subjects’ welfare?

Author(s): Andrew Crump, Matilda Gibbons, Meghan Barrett, Jonathan Birch, Lars Chittka
Published in: PLOS Biology, Issue 21, 2023, Page(s) e3002138, ISSN 1545-7885
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002138

How should we study animal consciousness scientifically?

Author(s): Birch, Jonathan; Broom, Donald M.; Browning, Heather; Crump, Andrew; Ginsburg, Simona; Halina, Marta; Harrison, David; Jablonka, Eva; Lee, Andrew Y.; Kammerer, François; Klein, Colin; Lamme, Victor; Michel, Matthias; Wemelsfelder, Françoise; Zacks, Oryan
Published in: Journal of Consciousness Studies, Issue 29, 2022, Page(s) 8-28, ISSN 1355-8250
Publisher: Imprint Academic

Sentience in decapod crustaceans: A general framework and review of the evidence.

Author(s): Crump, Andrew; Browning, Heather; Schnell, Alexandra; Burn, Charlotte; Birch, Jonathan
Published in: Animal Sentience, Issue 7, 2022, Page(s) 1, ISSN 2377-7478
Publisher: Wellbeing International
DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1691

Perspectival pluralism for animal welfare

Author(s): Veit, Walter; Browning, Heather
Published in: European Journal for Philosophy of Science, Issue 11, 2021, ISSN 1879-4912
Publisher: Springer Verlag
DOI: 10.1007/s13194-020-00322-9

Animal sentience

Author(s): Browning, Heather; Birch, Jonathan
Published in: Philosophy Compass, Issue 17, 2022, Page(s) e12822, ISSN 1747-9991
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
DOI: 10.1111/phc3.12822

Motivational trade-offs and modulation of nociception in bumblebees

Author(s): Gibbons, M.; Versace, E.; Crump, A.; Baran, B.; Chittka, L.
Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Issue 119, 2022, Page(s) e2205821119, ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2205821119

Evolutionary biology meets consciousness: essay review of Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka’s The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul

Author(s): Browning, Heather; Veit, Walter
Published in: Biology & Philosophy, Issue 36, 2021, Page(s) 5, ISSN 0169-3867
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
DOI: 10.1007/s10539-021-09781-7

Developmental Programming, Evolution, and Animal Welfare: A Case for Evolutionary Veterinary Science

Author(s): Veit, Walter; Browning, Heather
Published in: Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 2021, ISSN 1088-8705
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
DOI: 10.1080/10888705.2021.2014838

Monographic books (1)

The Edge of Sentience

Author(s): Jonathan Birch
Published in: 2024
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: 10.1093/9780191966729.001.0001