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.”

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[–] Areldyb@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Gotta join the chorus here. I'm not sure why anyone's surprised to find that something with functioning neurons can feel pain. Wild guess, because I'm not a neuroscientist, but that's gotta be one of the very first things they were ever responsible for conveying, right? "Ouch, don't" has pretty universal utility.

[–] Adulated_Aspersion@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Has there been a consensus somewhere that insects (in the animalia kingdom along with fish, birds, reptiles, mammals (humans), etc) do NOT feel pain? I thought everyone knew that intrinsically.