Ancient Inner Feelings: Interoceptive Insights into the Evolution of Consciousness

The evolutionary emergence of consciousness is a research topic that has been attracting increasing attention in recent years. In a brief span of time, the debate surrounding various models in this area is driving the development of an increasingly specific research agenda. In this article, we examine the main available models of emergence. All the models we discuss assume, with varying degrees of caution, that consciousness emerged through convergent evolution in three distinct phyla within the animal kingdom. Nevertheless, they provide a unified account that aims to comprehensively cover all independent tokens of emergence. After analyzing the suitability of this unifying strategy through the lens of contemporary evolutionary theory, we recommend adopting a token-by-token, phylum-by-phylum approach. At this point, we emphasize the advantage of accumulated comparative knowledge regarding vertebrate evolution, advocating for an interoceptive view of the emergence of consciousness in vertebrates.