 A refereed journal "Animal Sentience" launched in 2015 by the Institute of Science and Policy of The Humane Society of the United States is devoted to research on this and related topics.Consciousness is an elusive concept that presents many difficulties when attempts are made to define it.Its study has progressively become an interdisciplinary challenge for numerous researchers, including ethologists, neurologists, cognitive neuroscientists, philosophers, psychologists and psychiatrists.