Do animals process their feelings?

Subject to our closeness to them in the evolutionary tree, and subject to them living in similar sort of social groupings. That's because emotions work in small societies to maintain cohesion, reject dangerous members, defend the common good and overall increase the likelihood that the genome of that tribe/society/herd will survive. Dogs hunt in packs, for example, and that - combined with a few thousand years of training for docility and intelligence - means that they can live with us and read us fairly well (and vice versa) since we share the same basic emotions. There is no mistaking shame in either dogs or people, for example.

 

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I can’t see how an animal can have emotions and not have some sort of cognitive processing that triggers it and maintains it for a period of time. For instance, various different types of animals are documented as being able to hold grudges against other animals/humans, sometimes for a long time. Surely that is indicative of the sort of processing you’re referring to?

 

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"Moment Gorilla tells zoo goers not to feed him with SIGN LANGUAGE"

 

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Yes! That’s exactly the type of cognitive processing I’m referring to - that’s a great example. Another example could be the territorial nature of cats. I used to have two cats and one passed away a couple of years ago but he was always striking and hissing at the other cat - the one I have now. It could be territorial instinct, but it honestly felt like a grudge, as he refused to coexist peacefully with this cat.

 

This may be of interest,

dolphins

But there are 2 types of memory, short term and long term, short term memory can be observed in cellular mechanics, long term "engrams" are fixed memories with special meaning because of association with other memorable events when experienced the first time.

engram

Neuroscientists discover a molecular mechanism that allows memories to form
Modifications to chromosomes in “engram” neurons control the encoding and retrieval of memories.
Anne Trafton | MIT News Office
Publication Date:
October 5, 2020[/quote]

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Caption:
A new MIT study reveals that encoding memories in engram cells is controlled by large-scale remodeling of the proteins and DNA that make up cells’ chromatin. In this image of the brain, the hippocampus is the large yellow structure near the top. Green indicates neurons that were activated in memory formation; red shows the neurons that were activated in memory recall; blue shows the DNA of the cells; and yellow shows neurons that were activated in both memory formation and recall, and are thus considered to be the engram neurons.

https://news.mit.edu/2020/engram-memories-form-1005#

AFAIK, almost all cells in the body possess short-term memory of say, cell shape and utility mostly controlled by the cytoplasm and cytoskeleton as exhibited by intra- and intercellular transmission of trauma or attraction. This has been well demonstrated in experiments with the slime mold, which are clearly able to solve complex mazes and learn to anticipate regular experiential patterns from memory and display food preferences.

It is our skin on a nice warm day that feeds the body with sensations of comfort and utility.
Some of these external cellular experiences also result in the long range neural transmissions of sensory data to the brain and to the long term memory cells such as an engram memory of "that wonderful day on the beach".

 

I don't know, but I do know that I know how I feel when I feel it. I'll assume animals are the same. It's a different type of communication but it's still language being processed from one thing to another. We sometimes have an inner dialogue or monologue going on in our head kinda narrating our experiences, but even without the narration, we still understand what we're going through and what's happening. Why wouldn't other animals be the same?

 

Yes they will learn what these feelings are, like feeling the need to use the toilet.
There will be some things that will gush out uncontrolled, ever accidentally stood on your dog's paw?

 

Lol I have a cat, but same principle applies.

 

Yes and cats. If we try and imagine what they are feeling and thinking we end up anthropomorphosizing them. We cannot know only infer.
Just a quick one, I bet your cat talks to you? Of a kind. My dog certainly spoke to me, of a kind.
One thing stuck with me, a dog got hit by a car and we rushed over to tend to it. All we could do was talk to it stroke its head, at one point it let out this awful sound. A deep howl like a wolf, if I make a guess it was, "please help me!" Heart breaking. The dog then vomited blood slowly like it had been accumulating.
20 seconds later he was gone.
Domesticated animals pick up on our traits just as we try and connect with them.
Something future science can shine a light on.

 

He does talk to me, or tries to. Or maybe he thinks I’m the one trying. How would we ever really know who is the wiser one?

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When he works out Newton's laws of motion and communication of that information happens let me know.
Some animals are smart, relatively. Not human smart.