REPTILES and mammals show signs of simple emotions, but amphibians and
fish do not, a physiologist told last week鈥檚 Towards a Science of Consciousness
meeting in Arizona.
The heart rate of a lizard or rat shoots up when a human handles the animal
gently, says Marcel Cabanac of Laval University in Quebec. In contrast, four
bullfrogs failed to show any increase in heart rate after a minute of handling,
although their hearts do race during vigorous activity. Two other frogs and four
goldfish also did not display any such 鈥渆motional fever鈥� either, Cabanac
found.
He speculates that somewhere between amphibians and reptiles, vertebrates
crossed an evolutionary threshold that made these crude emotions possible.
鈥淧robably this is the most elementary level of consciousness,鈥� he says.
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