Several psychologists and ethologists have argued for the existence of animal consciousness by describing a range of behaviors that appear to show animals holding beliefs about things they cannot directly perceive—Donald Griffins 2001 book Animal Minds reviews a substantial portion of the evidence.On July 7, 2012, eminent scientists from different branches of neuroscience gathered at the University of Cambridge to celebrate the Francis Crick Memorial Conference, which deals with consciousness in humans and pre-linguistic consciousness in nonhuman animals. After the conference, they signed in the presence of Stephen Hawking, the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, which summarizes the most important findings of the survey:
"We decided to reach a consensus and make a statement directed to the public that is not scientific. Its obvious to everyone in this room that animals have consciousness, but it is not obvious to the rest of the world. It is not obvious to the rest of the Western world or the Far East. It is not obvious to the society. ""Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals ..., including all mammals and birds, and other creatures, ... have the necessary neural substrates of consciousness and the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors." Artifact consciousness
The idea of an artifact made conscious is an ancient theme of mythology, appearing for example in the Greek myth of Pygmalion, who carved a statue that was magically brought to life, and in medieval Jewish stories of the Golem, a magically animated homunculus built of clay.
In 2014, Gambetti P., Zou W.Q., and coworkers found that approximately 54% of mice inoculated with VPSPr brain homogenates exhibited histopathologic lesions and 34% harbored abnormal PrP similar to that of VPSPr on the first passage but no prion disease was detected on the second passage,[10] suggesting that the infectivity of the pathological PrP from VPSPr is lower compared to that from the most common sporadic CJD. See also
Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

References
8. Xiao X, Yuan J, Haïk S, Cali I, Zhan YA, Moudjou M, Li B, Laplanche JL, Laude H, Langeveld J, Gambetti P, Kitamoto T, Kong Q, Brandel JP, Cobb BA, Petersen RB & Zou WQ. Glycoform-selective prion formation in sporadic and familial forms of prion disease. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8:e58786. 9. Zou, WQ, Gambetti P, Xiao X, Yuan J, Langeveld J & Pirisinu L. Prions in variably protease-sensitive prionopathy: An update. Pathogens 2013; 2(3): 457-471. 10. Notari S, Xiao X, Espinosa JC, Cohen Y, Qing L, Aguilar-Calvo P, Kofskey D, Cali I, Cracco L, Kong Q, Torres JM, Zou W & Gambetti P. Transmission characteristics of variably protease-sensitive prionopathy. Emerg Infect Dis 2014, 20:2006-14. External links

Caroline Parkinson (13 August 2010). "Brain disease could affect more people, research finds". BBC News.