Of course, it’s hard to know what animals are thinking, because they can’t speak. But when you look at their brains, you realize how similar some of their processes are. You recognize that they are not just things.

Are there policy implications to these insights?

There might be some for animals in shelters. We might be able to use this research to help shelter dogs who have aggression problems. If we could learn what’s going on in their brains, we could find alternatives to euthanizing them.

The main thing that these studies have given me personally is serious questions about how we treat animals. Think about how we farm animals in large industrialized centers, where they are confined for much of their lives and then slaughtered, often cruelly.

If the animals are aware of their suffering — and I think they are — we ought to reconsider their treatment.

On a personal level, I’ve been a vegetarian, to varying degrees, since college. This research makes it clear that animals have brains with the capacity to feel many of the emotions we do.

That sharpens my resolve to be a better vegetarian, although I have also learned not to beat myself up about it when I fall short.