The idea that we are not all that dissimilar from our animal counterparts is one of the central arguments put forward by John Gray in Straw Dogs.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Straw-Dogs-Thoughts-Humans-Animals/...

The field may or may not have progressed dramatically. However, ironically your claim of a lack of evidence, is not evidential itself, and I suspect the dismissal is unwarranted. Tor Nørretranders[0] was expanding on the work of German engineer Karl Küpfmüller[1].

Furthermore Kupfmuller,Nørretranders are not alone in this regard:

"We can therefore conclude that the maximal information flow of the process of conscious sensory perception is about 40 bits/second -- many orders of magnitude below that taken in by receptors [nerve endings]."

-- Manfred Zimmermann. "Neurophysiology of Sensory Systems" in Robert F. Schmidt ed., Fundamentals of Sensory Physiology (1986) p.116

"... If we do not act in the way we think we do, the reason is partly to do with the bandwidth of consciousness - its ability to transmit information measured in terms of bits per second. [...] The bandwidth of consciousness is around eighteen bits."

--John N Gray (2002) [3][4]

First prize would be evidence for a refutation of the 'consciousness operates at a low information rate' hypothesis, as opposed to conjecture or speculation.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_N%C3%B8rretranders

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_K%C3%BCpfm%C3%BCller

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Sensory-Physiology-Spring...

[3] http://www.amazon.com/Straw-Dogs-Thoughts-Humans-Animals/dp/...

[4] http://books.google.com/books?id=k5PkZXJEQqoC&lpg=PA45&#...</a>