14/14 Although we still don't have an answer to consciousness, we can infer (always indirectly) its existence in nature and the functions with which it is associated. So far, I would say that consciousness and cognition (traditionally separate) go hand in hand.

13/14 In short, the evidence suggests that insects experience vision in a way that someone who is blind could not.

I also believe that this paper provides a good starting point for reflecting on the role of consciousness in nature.

12/14 There are many other behaviors that suggest the existence of subjective visual experience in insects. Of course, we also know that they are capable of learning concepts (including abstract ones) and that they generalize what they have learned beyond the context.

11/14 In these cases, the visual experience alternates between two ambiguous stimuli.

In this case, it was demonstrated in flies, and their alternation between attention to one object or another is like ours.
(paper, 2020) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

10/14 The authors give other examples, such as ocular rivalry, which also cannot occur with blind vision. One of my favorite examples is Necker's cube, in which your perspective depends entirely on yourself, but the typical cup-face illusion also works.

9/14 We know that insects can recognize objects in an intermodal way.
They have a mental image of the world accessible to all their senses, just like us. For example, they can recognize objects by sight if they have previously encountered them by touch in the dark, and vice versa.

8/14 Those with blindsight can navigate spaces with obstacles and catch objects in midair. So, what can't they do?

With blindsight, they cannot learn flexibly, they cannot learn concepts or generalize, and they do not integrate their experience with others.

7/14 Although some have seen blindsight as the possible key to saving human exceptionalism (Ramachandran, I'm looking at you), the reality is that it hides the key to just the opposite. If we know the limits of blind vision, we can also intuit what functions consciousness is associated with.

6/14 Given that insect brains are so extremely small, some have argued that their way of experiencing the world should also be blind (this has been a common argument even when talking about fish).

5/14 This is because not all vision processing occurs in the visual cortex; there are alternative pathways that go to deeper regions of the brain. As a result, they have eyes “to see,” but they do not experience vision. The most they can do is intuit what they see.

4/14 If you convince someone with it to walk through a room full of obstacles, they will know how to avoid them, and if you insist that they choose a specific object from the table, they will always be able to find it. Those who suffer from blindsight do not know how they do it, but they manage it.

3/14 Blindsight was discovered in monkeys by Nicholas Humphrey (I recommend this talk of his). It occurs when the primary visual cortex is damaged. In these cases, the person claims to have gone blind, but acts as if they were sighted.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QWa...

2/14 The evidence they gather is of behaviors that we (primates) cannot perform unless we are conscious. To this end, they focus on a fascinating phenomenon that is well known in humans and other primates: blindsight.

2/2 Perhaps most interestingly, 44% of passengers said they did not notice Batman's presence.

Positive and unexpected environmental alterations can promote kindness, from artistic interventions to Batman.

2/2 The greatest energy expenditure occurs at the start of complex cognitive processes (especially if they are multimodal and complex, such as social cognition) and in the frontoparietal areas.

It is inexpensive thanks to the fact that it functions as a predictive machine and to its very structure.

Extra: Over the years, I have shared many fascinating articles about the cognitive abilities of these creatures, so it was difficult for me to choose which related article to link to. I will leave you with this gem.

H. formosus Courtship dance (sound on!)
(paper, 2021) bioone.org/journals/the...

2/2 They have demonstrated this with two habituation/dishabituation experiments (it is difficult to ask spiders such a thing). These spiders (P. regius) are not social; the authors believe that this is the result of

(blog) elifesciences.org/digests/9714...

5/5 After this, the invader assumes the role of queen: the workers care for her, cleaning and feeding her, while she begins to lay the eggs that will give rise to her new colony.

Furthermore, there appears to be a convergence between the two species.
(blog) phys.org/news/2025-11...

4/5 They then carefully approach the queen, spraying her several times with a secretion from their abdomen (believed to be formic acid) before immediately retreating. The workers, who live in a more chemical than visual world, then attack and kill their own queen.