Insights into the Animal’s Mind

Abstract

Although it was believed that the mind is an ``exclusive ability'' of human beings, many animals possess excellent perceptual and cognitive skills that sometimes surpass those of humans. For example, sensory abilities such as sight, hearing, and smell are much better developed in some animals than in humans. Also some animals are capable of using tools, to live in a hierarchical society, and to develop empathy towards animals of different species (Striedter 2013). Here, we discuss cognitive features in animals with small brain, as well as, in animals with larger brains. To understand animal's mind, this chapter examines the animal's brain from structural (anatomy: brain size, connectome and modularity, i.e. lamination and minicolumns) and functional (learning, cognition, and mind) perspectives.