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Updated: Feb 18, 2026

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae
Published on: July 8, 2025
Did you know that your animals have consciousness?
P A Accorsi1, E Mondo1, M Cocchi1
1Department of Medical Veterinary Sciences, University of Bologna, Via Tolara di Sopra 50, 40064 Ozzano dell'Emilia, Bologna, Italy.
Abstract:
Consciousness is the greatest enigma in human history. For centuries scientists and researchers have tried to describe it without coming to conclusions. In the last years with the neurosciences development, consciousness has become the common goal of numerous studies. But consciousness has always been studied only in humans, but after "Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness" in 2012, even non-human animalsthey feel possessed of the consciousness. According to "theory Orch-OR" of Hameroff and Penrose we have conducted a study on Alaskan malamute and German shepherd to analysed a triplet of platelet fatty acids (linoleic acid; palmitic acid; arachidonic acid). Through these analysis and the relative mapping of subjects within a SOM it was possible to make an assessment of the possible onset of mood disorders in the dogs. A critical analysis of the results obtained shows that animals have molecular analogies with humans compared to mood disorders. The German shepherd and Alaskan malamute, indeed, have, in the case of major depression, a bio-chemical profile, the most similar to man.
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