The behavioural cue of ‘flexible self-protection’ is a way to establish whether an animal feels pain, scientists say

Crickets that received the hot probe “overwhelmingly” directed their attention to the affected antenna – they groomed it more frequently, and tended to it over a longer period of time, he says. “They weren’t just agitated and flustered. They were directing their attention to the actual antennae that was hit with this hot probe.”

Link to the paper

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[–] victorz@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Dude what is this news? Of COURSE insects feel pain? A child can see this clearly, as I did when I was a young'un. They twitch and scurry when injured or burned. Don't ask. Anyway.

Why would they be different from animals and FISH that was apparently news as well, that they feel pain and anxiety when caught and killed. Oh and crayfish and lobster when boiled alive 😂😂😂 why wouldn't they feel pain? It just seems so stupid to me to assume they wouldn't.

Here I thought we already knew this and did it anyway because... We gotta eat, right? Animals kill and eat barely-even-dead prey all the time, it's just nature, right??

But I grew up and learned humans don't think other animals feel pain whatsoever. Like bruh wuuuut???? Whatchu think was going on?!

[–] Cytobit@piefed.social 0 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Ok, now do sponges. Is it obvious sponges feel pain? How can you tell it's obvious?

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I don't know anything at all about sponges. Never held one, never seen a live one in nature.

🤷‍♂️

[–] Sprinks@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Come to think about it, ive never seen one in nature either. Are sponges even real?

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 41 minutes ago

Prolly not, right

[–] Soulg@ani.social 6 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

I don't know whether they do or not but they have very primitive nervous systems and just responding to bodily trauma or negative stimuli does not inherently imply feeling pain

[–] Tiral@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

Hopefully an advanced race doesn't put you in a room, break your shit, and say the same thing to each other.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 5 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

But the fact that they do, just like we do, should be an indication of them feeling pain, so I don't understand why people would assume the opposite. They have made every indication of feeling pain before we knew about nervous systems and all this modern stuff, so I really don't get it.

[–] backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 10 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

They do but not like mammals do. Injury occurs, their nervous system responds, but their “brain” does not register it to the same degree it would in animals with more evolved brains. This video is a good example of the processing power of insect “brains”. The mantis is processing “eat” and the pain of being gnawed in half simply can’t over power the drive to eat. There’s not a mammal or bird that would ignore being chewed in half just because it was enjoying a succulent meal. Recognizing that different animals process pain in a way different from others is not license to disregard their pain or lessen the suffering, it’s just acknowledging that different systems process hurting in a different manner.

https://youtube.com/shorts/-P9rlovvbjQ

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

Very interesting video, and also super gross, yuck.

Makes me curious if all insects can be this oblivious in similar experiments.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca -1 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

But they are literally not like us. They don't have blood have exo skeletons.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

That's not really relevant to the topic here.

[–] trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

It's the same people who argue against plants being living things.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago

I really don't get it bro 😂

[–] FatVegan@leminal.space 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

People claim fish don't feel pain to feel better about torturing and eating them. So that is not ahocking at all to me

[–] YawningNostalgia@thelemmy.club 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

When I was in med school assisting in circumcisions (didn't want to, had to) the doctor said that the baby screaming was not proof that he felt pain, and demonstrated it by poking the baby and showing that he cried as a response to that. Absolutely nonsensical for a supposedly intelligent person to say. The cry was vastly different from the circ and a poke. It was an excuse not to use local anesthesia or justify the whole process I guess.
The funny part is that that when I was on OBGYN at a different hospital, and when I was at my home hospital on peds, the pediatricians did circumcisions. So I got twice as many circumcisions as my classmates. Some of them could have theoretically attended zero if their schedule was flipped and they were on peds at the OBGYN circumcising hospital and on OBGYN at the peds circumcising hospital. I can't understand why someone would claim someone else doesn't feel pain. I wish we had a machine that could make someone feel for a second what you feel so that it stops being minimized or disbelieved.

[–] ChexMax@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I mean no offense, but some Dr's are wild. It's not just babies who are faking pain, but also women and POC. My husband was given the same pain meds/schedule for a cut on his thumb that I was for childbirth with a second degree tear. He was given even better pain meds the time we went in for a "mystery pain" in his chest that they could find no evidence of.

[–] PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 11 minutes ago* (last edited 11 minutes ago)

I know about this as a phenomena, but even with already knowing, the specific comparison stories are always so wtffff.... So sorry you/y'all experience that, it's hot trash.