Jennifer A. Mather
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View article: Understanding lived experiences with KCNQ2 developmental and epileptic encephalopathy
Understanding lived experiences with KCNQ2 developmental and epileptic encephalopathy Open
View article: Making an Ethogram for Octopuses: A Personal Story
Making an Ethogram for Octopuses: A Personal Story Open
Making an ethogram, a repertoire of the behavior of a species or several related ones, is obviously an important foundation for any theoretical studies of their behavior. In addition, it is useful for conservation, and evolution, and as a …
View article: Consciousness of octopuses—on their own terms
Consciousness of octopuses—on their own terms Open
Because cephalopods are so different from the vertebrate lineage, their possible consciousness must be assessed on the basis of their heritage and abilities. Cephalopods have evolved in water, a denser medium than air, and their perception…
View article: Postscript to Invertebrate Welfare: “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us”
Postscript to Invertebrate Welfare: “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us” Open
Through this collection of papers, we have considered in depth the effects that humans have on invertebrate welfare in a variety of contexts [...]
View article: A phylogeny of extant coleoid cephalopods with brain data
A phylogeny of extant coleoid cephalopods with brain data Open
Extant coleoid cephalopods include over 800 species of octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish, which have drawn scientific and public interest for their complex behavior and cognition. Of these, approximately 10% (79) species have adult specimen…
View article: The Long Road from Religious and Ethical Traditions to Welfare of Invertebrates
The Long Road from Religious and Ethical Traditions to Welfare of Invertebrates Open
Ethical behaviour tends to lead to the welfare consideration of animals, but much less so for invertebrates. Indigenous tradition often valued all animals as having an important role in life on the planet, a practical application of modern…
View article: Where Should Comparative Cognition Be Going? To the Invertebrates
Where Should Comparative Cognition Be Going? To the Invertebrates Open
Presently the study of comparative cognition is mostly on "higher" vertebrates, who only make up about 1.5% of the animal species on the planet.We can extend this narrow model to include invertebrates, especially cephalopods, insects, and …
View article: Not just bony fish: all nonmammalian and nonavian animals are neglected in both welfare and general research
Not just bony fish: all nonmammalian and nonavian animals are neglected in both welfare and general research Open
The lack of research on fish welfare highlighted by Oldfield & Bonano (2024) is only part of a more general problem: a relative neglect of animals other than mammals and birds. The causes are our lack of knowledge, our negative view of wha…
View article: The Long Road from Religious and Ethical Traditions to Welfare of Invertebrates
The Long Road from Religious and Ethical Traditions to Welfare of Invertebrates Open
Ethical behaviour tends to lead to welfare consideration of animals, but much less so for invertebrates. Indigenous tradition often valued all animals having an important role in the life on the planet, a practical application of modern ec…
View article: Ethics and Invertebrates: The Problem Is Us
Ethics and Invertebrates: The Problem Is Us Open
In the last few decades, science has begun to make great strides at understanding how varied, fascinating, and intelligent invertebrate animals are. Because they are poorly known, the invertebrates that make up about 98% of the animals on …
View article: A syntactic analysis of a complex motor action: the octopus arm ‘slap’
A syntactic analysis of a complex motor action: the octopus arm ‘slap’ Open
The analysis of a natural motor action is always difficult, especially when different motor programs are combined within the same interaction with the environment. We analyzed the behavior of an octopus, Abdopus sp., filmed in tidal pools …
View article: Octopus arm ‘slap’ in situ: A syntactic analysis of a complex motor action
Octopus arm ‘slap’ in situ: A syntactic analysis of a complex motor action Open
An octopus, Abdopus sp. , can use rotation and translation of its hydrostatic arms, and combine these kinematic behaviors serially and in parallel, on different arms, to ‘slap’ at fish in the wild. Different motor programs may be used in m…
View article: The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Valence
The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Valence Open
Octopuses may demonstrate perceptual richness, neural unity, temporality, and finally, valence or affective evaluation, as the neural basis for consciousness. Octopuses attach a positive valence to food as ‘specializing generalists’ with l…
View article: A Turing-based bimodal population code can specify Cephalopod chromatic skin displays
A Turing-based bimodal population code can specify Cephalopod chromatic skin displays Open
The skin of a cephalopod forms a dazzling array of patterns made by chromatophores, elastic sacs of pigment that can be expanded by muscles to reveal their color. Tens of thousands of these chromatophores can work together to generate a st…
View article: The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Temporality
The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Temporality Open
Temporality is one of the criteria that Birch has advanced for areas of cognitive ability that may underlie animal sentience. An ability to integrate and use information across time must be more than simply learning pieces of information a…
View article: A Turing-Based Bimodal Population Code Can Specify Cephalopod Chromatic Skin Displays
A Turing-Based Bimodal Population Code Can Specify Cephalopod Chromatic Skin Displays Open
View article: The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Unity
The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Unity Open
Birch et al. suggest that consciousness in any animal group must involve four aspects—perceptual richness, evaluative richness (affectivity), integration at one time (unity), and integration across time (temporality). This review will eval…
View article: Octopus Consciousness: The Role of Perceptual Richness
Octopus Consciousness: The Role of Perceptual Richness Open
It is always difficult to even advance possible dimensions of consciousness, but Birch et al., 2020 have suggested four possible dimensions and this review discusses the first, perceptual richness, with relation to octopuses. They advance …
View article: BURYING AND ASSOCIATED BEHAVIORS OF ROSSIA PACIFICA (CEPHALOPODA: SEPIOLIDAE)
BURYING AND ASSOCIATED BEHAVIORS OF ROSSIA PACIFICA (CEPHALOPODA: SEPIOLIDAE) Open
Bien que les Sepiolides s'enfouissent couramment dans le sable pendant la journee, on connait peu de chose a propos de leur comportement fouisseur. Le fouissement a ete etudie chez Rossia pacifica, sur substrats de granulometries different…
View article: A new species of pygmy Paroctopus (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae): the smallest southwestern Atlantic octopod, found in sea debris
A new species of pygmy Paroctopus (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae): the smallest southwestern Atlantic octopod, found in sea debris Open
The new species, Paroctopus cthulu sp. nov. Leite, Haimovici, Lima and Lima, was recorded from very shallow coastal waters on sandy/muddy and shelter-poor bottoms with natural and human-origin debris. It is a small octopus, adults are less…
View article: Ethics and Care: For Animals, Not Just Mammals
Ethics and Care: For Animals, Not Just Mammals Open
In the last few decades, we have made great strides in recognizing ethics and providing care for animals, but the focus has been mainly on mammals. This stems from a bias of attention not only in research but predominantly in non-scientist…
View article: Male Alternative Reproductive Tactics and Associated Evolution of Anatomical Characteristics in Loliginid Squid
Male Alternative Reproductive Tactics and Associated Evolution of Anatomical Characteristics in Loliginid Squid Open
Loliginid squids provide a unique model system to explore male alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) and their linkage to size, behavioral decision making, and possibly age. Large individuals fight one another and the winners form tempor…
View article: What is cognition?
What is cognition? Open
View article: What is in an octopus's mind?
What is in an octopus's mind? Open
It is difficult to imagine what an animal as different from us as the octopus 'thinks', but we can make some progress. In the Umwelt or perceptual world of an octopus, what the lateralized monocular eyes perceive is not color but the plane…
View article: What and where is an octopus’s mind?
What and where is an octopus’s mind? Open
It is gratifying to see the thorough discussion of whether octopuses have a mind, though perhaps a mind that is different from those of "higher" vertebrates. It stimulates us to look at the welfare of these animals and challenges us to fin…
View article: Variability in the “stereotyped” prey capture sequence of male cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) could relate to personality differences
Variability in the “stereotyped” prey capture sequence of male cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) could relate to personality differences Open
View article: Support for the precautionary principle
Support for the precautionary principle Open
The precautionary principle gives the animal the benefit of the doubt when its sentient status is not known. This is necessary for advanced invertebrates such as cephalopods because research and evidence concerning the criteria for sentien…
View article: Diversity in the diet of the predator <i>Octopus cyanea</i> in the coral reef system of Moorea, French Polynesia
Diversity in the diet of the predator <i>Octopus cyanea</i> in the coral reef system of Moorea, French Polynesia Open
Scheel, D., Leite, T., Mather, J., Langford, K. (2016): Diversity in the diet of the predator Octopus cyanea in the coral reef system of Moorea, French Polynesia. Journal of Natural History 51 (43-44): 2615-2633, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2016…
View article: Cephalopods are best candidates for invertebrate consciousness
Cephalopods are best candidates for invertebrate consciousness Open
Insects might have been the first invertebrates to evolve sentience, but cephalopods were the first invertebrates to gain scientific recognition for it.
View article: An invertebrate perspective on pain
An invertebrate perspective on pain Open
Although Key (2016) argues that mammals feel pain and fish do not, from an invertebrate perspective, it is obvious that the pain experience is shared by animals from a number of different animal groups.