title: Body and self in dolphins.
abstract: In keeping with recent views of consciousness of self as represented in the body in action, empirical studies are reviewed that demonstrate a bottlenose dolphin's (Tursiops truncatus) conscious awareness of its own body and body parts, implying a representational "body image" system. Additional work reviewed demonstrates an advanced capability of dolphins for motor imitation of self-produced behaviors and of behaviors of others, including imitation of human actions, supporting hypotheses that dolphins have a sense of agency and ownership of their actions and may implicitly attribute those levels of self-awareness to others. Possibly, a mirror-neuron system, or its functional equivalent to that described in monkeys and humans, may mediate both self-awareness and awareness of others.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. lherman@hawaii.edu
authors: Louis M
authors: LM
authors: Herman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001364:Awareness; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001828:Body Image; D050681:Bottle-Nosed Dolphin / Q000523:psychology*; D003243:Consciousness; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007389:Internal-External Control; D059167:Mirror Neurons; D012649:Self Concept; D012938:Social Perception