# Invertebrate sentience

> When people hear animal, they usually think of vertebrates, but invertebrates such as insects are also included among animals, and it seems that quite a large number of species possess sentience.

When people hear [animal](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Animal.txt), they usually think of <vertebrates>, but <invertebrates> such as insects are also included among animals, and it seems that quite a large number of species possess [sentience](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Sentience.txt).

## Empirical research on invertebrate sentience

There is a study[^1] comparing features related to <conscious experience> in a total of 18 kinds of living beings, including <plants>, some <vertebrates>, and various <invertebrates>. It investigated a total of 53 traits across eight categories: responses to harmful stimuli, motivation-based trade-offs, learning-related indicators, cognitive sophistication, responses to drugs, navigational skill, behaviors related to emotional states, and anatomical/evolutionary features. (Reference: [Sentience table](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Sentience%20table.txt))

According to that study, when plants, chickens, and cows were compared, plants showed large differences from chickens on nearly all 53 traits, whereas chickens and cows showed more similarity than difference.

`nb-cell:viewof categoryFilter`

`nb-cell:viewof missing`

`nb-cell:chart`

The following is the result comparing only cows, chickens, and plants.

`nb-cell:plant`

If we extract only the traits related to pleasure and pain, they are as follows.

`nb-cell:pleasureAndPain`

## Footnotes

[^1]: https://rethinkpriorities.org/research-area/invertebrate-sentience-table/