Jul 11, 2022 06:00:00

Studies show that insects may be feeling 'pain'

The question 'Do animals other than humans also feel pain?' Is related to various ethical issues such as animal experiments and domestic animals. In recent years, '

fish also feel pain ' and ' octopus has pain '. Research results such as have been announced. A new paper published in the Royal Society Bulletin B of the scientific journal reports that 'insects may be in pain.'

Descending control of nociception in insects? | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0599

Evidence found that insects are possibly able to feel pain
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-evidence-insects-possibly-pain.html

Insects Probably Feel Pain, With Big Implications For How We Treat Them, Study Says | IFLScience
https://www.iflscience.com/insects-probably-feel-pain-with-big-implications-for-how-we-treat-them-study-says-64349

In recent years, high ethical hurdles have been set in various animal experiments, but insects are said to be 'not able to feel pain', and Drosophila, which is widely used as a model animal, is treated according to the same standards as monkeys and mice. Is not ...

However, research teams at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Tehran have questioned the theory that insects do not feel pain, based on various studies published so far.

The theory that insects do not feel pain explains that the central nervous system is less sophisticated than mammals, so even if the body is injured, the brain does not handle the pain. For example, hornworms behave as if they respond to pain by bending the whole body when a part of the body is stimulated, but is this reaction mediated by the brain or reflexes that do not mediated by the brain? I'm not sure if it's an action.

In the treatise, the research team focuses on 'the mechanism by which insects do not respond to pain' rather than 'how insects respond to pain.' In a variety of animals, including insects, when body tissues are injured or exposed to chemical stimuli, the stimuli are converted into electrical signals through sensory neurons, causing various reactions and pain in response to these signals. This is a process called 'nociception,' which allows you to feel pain and protect the damaged area or prevent further damage.

However, when too much pain occurs, nociception may be suppressed, and conversely, the phenomenon of almost no pain may occur. For example, it is pain-relieving in the brain that a person in a car accident does not notice his or her injury until he is treated at the hospital, or feels pain as soon as he escapes from danger and takes a rest. This is because chemical substances are produced to suppress pain.

Although insects do not have important opioid receptors in the control of human pain, the researchers have identified

neuropeptides that are produced when insects are traumatized and may act as pain suppressors. increase. Although insects usually feel pain, the research team believes that producing this neuropeptide in certain situations may reduce pain and act painlessly.

For example, a male mantis is eaten by a female after mating, and the reason why the male does not resist violently at this time is explained as 'because the mantis has no pain sensation'. However, the researchers argue that the male mantis does not resist because it does not feel pain, but because it is 'suppressed by the neuropeptides produced after mating.'

'This is likely to show that insects can prioritize other behavioral needs and reduce nociception behavior under certain circumstances,' the research team said. This shows that the brain controls pain in the insect brain, which is evidence that the insect is feeling pain.