Do insects feel pain? Allergy is not yet a consensus of science Land of people

Have you ever wondered if insects feel pain? Although there is some research on this topic, the topic has not yet gained scientific consensus.

While some researchers argue that insects possess neurophysiological and behavioral characteristics that indicate the ability to feel, others question whether this evidence is enough to confirm that the group actually experiences conscious pain.

Therefore, controversy surrounding this sensitivity continues, and more research is needed to fully understand the nature of the pain experience in these animals and its effects.

Pain is defined as the subjective experience of a mental state that is consciously perceived as negativeWhich can include feelings such as anxiety, fear, discomfort, and boredom, in addition to physical pain. a nociceptionOn the other hand, it is the physiological process of detecting noxious stimuli by specialized sensory receptors called nociceptors.

These are sensory receptors that respond to potentially harmful stimuli, such as excessive heat, extreme pressure, or irritating chemicals, and transmit these signals to the central nervous system for processing.

Nociception is a biological mechanism that occurs before the conscious experience of pain It does not always lead to pain and may only trigger reflex responses.

In the case of insects, for example, they have nociceptors, which are sensory receptors specialized in detecting noxious stimuli, and exhibit defensive behaviors in response to these stimuli.

On the other hand, researchers who say that these animals do not feel pain point to differences in the brain anatomy and organization of the nervous system of insects compared to vertebrates, which suggests that insects may not have the ability to feel pain in the same way that insects do. Insects, humans and other vertebrate animals.

Hey Land of people I spoke with César Favacio, a biology graduate from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), and a Master's and PhD student in Biodiversity and Evolution to understand the complexity of this topic. According to him, there is no consensus among researchers for several factors:

• Anatomical and physiological differences:Insects have very different nervous systems and brain anatomy from vertebrates, making it difficult to determine whether their responses to noxious stimuli reflect a conscious experience of pain similar to that of humans and other vertebrate animals;
• Interpretation of behavior: While some behaviors that insects exhibit in response to noxious stimuli can be interpreted as indicative of pain, other researchers argue that these behaviors may be merely reflexive or adaptive responses that do not necessarily reflect a conscious experience of pain;
• Limitations in study methods: The ability to study pain sensitivity in insects is limited by the lack of direct methods to assess the subjective experience of pain in non-human organisms. This means that researchers often have to resort to indirect measures such as behavior and physiology to infer the presence of pain.
• Ethical implications: The issue of pain sensitivity in insects has major ethical implications, especially with regard to the treatment of these animals in agricultural practices, scientific research and pest control. This can make discussions on the topic emotional and politically charged, making it difficult to form an objective consensus.

“Some invertebrates that are already widely recognized as possibly being able to feel pain include cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans. These classes of invertebrates have been the subject of studies and research indicating the existence of neurophysiological and behavioral mechanisms that suggest the ability to feel pain,” the expert points out.

“Therefore, there is a growing consensus among experts that animals (such as octopuses, crabs, shrimp, and lobsters) may experience some level of pain sensitivity,” he adds.

according to Article 2022, Studies on some groups of insects have attempted to evaluate the potential for pain, and have divided experiments into 8 criteria: Adults of cockroaches, beetles, flies, mosquitoes, wasps/bees/ants, butterflies, moths, and grasshoppers/cockroaches/hoppers have several criteria with high chances of responding to stimuli.

Cockroaches and flies were the animals that received the largest number of criteria with maximum confidence levels, meaning that they appeared to meet the selected criteria (6 out of 8), with the rest of the criteria missing for these groups due to the lack of work on the topic. .

According to Cesar, “pain,” in the eyes of those who advocate insect allergy, is a neurophysiological and behavioral response to noxious stimuli, similar to what vertebrates feel, which can be compared to what we feel when we cut the skin. For example. Regarding the duration of pain, there is no clear consensus.

Some argue that insects only feel pain temporarily, while others believe that it can last until the animal dies, depending on the severity of the stimulus and the insect's ability to recover.

“For most insect species, there are almost no data on human treatment in the laboratory or field. The lack of guidelines presents a practical challenge for experimenters seeking to adopt higher animal welfare practices.

“The new difficulties arising from considering insect welfare in these contexts require collaboration between ethologists, entomologists, comparative cognitive scientists, animal welfare researchers, policymakers, economists, and industry and wildlife management professionals to make decisions that protect the interests of all animals.” He explains.

Cesar explains that the topic of insect allergy may not be explored much for several reasons. This may include the traditional view that insects are merely mechanical beings with no capacity to feel pain, which may have limited interest and limited resources for research in this area.

Moreover, the complexity of insect nervous systems and the difficulty of interpreting their behaviors can pose major challenges for researchers. Ethical questions about the use of insects in scientific experiments may also have influenced the paucity of studies on the allergies of these animals.

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