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

  • Victor@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    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?!

    • Soulg@ani.social
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      10 days ago

      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

      • Victor@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        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
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          10 days ago

          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

          • Victor@lemmy.world
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            10 days 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
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          10 days ago

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

      • Tiral@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

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

      • Victor@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

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

        🤷‍♂️

        • Sprinks@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

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

            • Sprinks@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              well fuck. What other lies have they pushed on us? Is earth even flat? I bet its not even on a turtle back drifting through space. Im so lost and confused.

              • Victor@lemmy.world
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                9 days ago

                The turtles are real, just not holding up the earth. Saw that shit on that newly leaked cartoon Avatar The last Airbender movie. They’re there.

                • Sprinks@lemmy.world
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                  9 days ago

                  oh thank fuck. For a minute there i was starting to question my entire understanding of reality and the world as we know it. Whew Praise be to turtle.

    • Auli@lemmy.ca
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      10 days ago

      Now whose putting human emotions on a bug. They are not small humans and do not have the same emotions.

      • Victor@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        I’m not talking about emotions. Pain is not an emotion. Pain is a sensation.