There is mounting evidence that insects feel pain, just like us

The main theme, of course, its fault. Would we continue to kill mosquitoes, flies, ants, cockroaches and other insects if we knew they can feel pain?

We have always considered insects to be like instinctive and senseless creatures with robotic reactions.

However, the more research is done, the more surprisingly complex behaviors discover each other: from bees communicating through dance to incredible feats of cooperation between ants.

And now we have more and more evidence that these little “insignificant” creatures that rule our world they may also feel pain.

The nociceptiondetection by the sensory nervous system of unpleasant stimuli including burns, cuts and other injuries, triggers a variety of physiological responses and behavior in animals.

One of them can be the perception of pain.

It is well documented that insects have avoidance responses to potentially harmful contact.

In 2019, researchers revealed that the fruit fly manifested symptoms of chronic pain after scientists removed a leg. Once the fruit fly was completely healed, they found that the fruit fly’s contralateral leg had become hypersensitive.

The authors attributed this to the fly having lost its “pain brake” mechanism. This mechanism relieves the perception of painbut in fruit flies, when the sensory nerves were overstimulated, it killed the brake altogether.

Detecting pain in another life is not as simple as observing a negative reaction to a harmful touch. To consciously register a sensation of pain, we need a complex physiological system that connects to our brains, and maybe emotions too.

In mammals, nociceptors (pain receptors) send an alarm to nasty stimuli to our brain, where neurons generate negative and subjective sensationsphysical and emotional pain.

Studies show that nociception and pain can be adjusted independently and they have identified different systems for regulating each one.

These systems have not yet been fully identified in insects. “A hallmark of human pain perception is that it can be modulated by nerve signals from the brain,” he said News week neurobiologist Matilda Gibbons del Queen Mary UniversityIn England.

“Soldiers are sometimes unaware of serious battlefield injuries because the body’s own opiates suppress the nociceptive signal. So we wonder if the insect brain contains the neural mechanisms this would make the experience of pain-like perception plausible, rather than just basic nociception, “he added.

Gibbons and colleagues looked at the scientific literature and found several lines of evidence that suggest this mechanism It is present in insects.

Although they lack opioid receptor genes that downregulate pain in us, produce other proteins during traumatic events that could serve the same purpose.

Behavioral evidence also suggests that insects they have molecular pathways which suppress responses to damaging touch, both for the peripheral and central nervous systems. For example, the presence of a sugar solution suppresses the normal avoidance by bumblebees of unpleasant stimuli.

Anatomically, insects they have descending neurons from the brain to the part of your nerve cord where your defensive reaction against harmful touch comes from.

Also, the tobacco hornworm too use mitigating behavior after being injured, such as grooming.

Each of these things may not be definitive in themselves, but together they seem to point to it insects have a kind of pain response control systemsimilar to ours.

“We support it insects probably have central nervous control on nociception, based on evidence from anatomical, molecular and behavioral neuroscience, “say the researchers.

“Such a check it is consistent with the existence of the experience of pain“concludes the study, the results of which were published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

However, since insects are a large and diverse group, it is entirely possible that the complexity of their regulation of nociception and potential pain sensations vary widely from each other.

But the prospect of your pain raises important ethical questions for further investigation, particularly in light of the future proposal for insect farms to be used as alternative food for a growing world population.

“We meet at an important crossroads how to feed a human population that is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, “say the researchers.

“Although conventional agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, the United Nations recommends mass production of insects for food. However, the ethical implications have not been fully considered, such as protecting animal welfare. they tend not to cover insects“.

Source: SienceAlert