Science Sunday: Insects, pain and what's for dinner

If you wish to submit a question to me for Science Sunday or the Arthropod Segment, feel free to send me a private message or email me at:

sofiarune@hotmail.com

Interesting papers on pain reception in invertebrates:

painless, a Drosophila Gene Essential for Nociception
http://www.cell.com/retrieve/pii/S0092867403002721

Defensive Responses of Larval Manuca sexta and the Sensitization by Noxious Stimuli in the Laboratory and Field
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/204/3/457.full.pdf

Tobin, D. M. and Bargmann, C. I. (2004), Invertebrate nociception: Behaviors, neurons and molecules. Journal of Neurobiology, 61: 161--174. doi: 10.1002/neu.20082

Thank you to Ermac514 for submitting these questions!
http://www.youtube.com/user/Ermac514

Category:

Education

Tags:

• invertebrate
• arthropod
• insect
• nociceptor
• nociception
• pain
• perception
• physiology
• psychology
• humans
• vertebrate
• bug
• hemiptera
• beef
• chicken
• ecological
• economical
• eat
• consume
• science
• sunday

[tyrongkojy]

Could you try fiddling with the volume on your vids? They're awfully quiet.

[sofiarune]

@tyrongkojy I will definitely look into it. Thanks for pointing it out.

[SyncopatedProgress]

I would really appreciate it if you gave a few tips on how to get ower ones fear of insects. That is of course if it fits in the general idea of your channel.

[sofiarune]

@SyncopatedProgress I think learning about their behaviour is key. Insects are highly predictable and once you know what to look for you can tell if an insect is actually posing a threat or if it's just exploring its environment. For example, one time a wasp wouldn't leave me alone when I noticed it was building a nest on a fire extinguisher and I was wearing a red shirt. I realised it thought I was the fire extinguisher and was looking for its nest. As soon as I moved away everything was fine.

[RDaneelOlivaw2]

Interesting video. Is that lobster actually considered a bug or does it just kind of look like one? I was under the impression that crustateans were something different from insects.

[sofiarune]

@RDaneelOlivaw2 I recommend rewatching from 0:34 hehe.

[TheHerbulator]

I have a trick for pain that seems to work, is I ask myself what is pain. I try to give an answer, and it seems to numb it. Like, its just in the brain, it isnt "real". Interesting video

[TheStigma]

I think I'd be ok with some sort of processed protein from insects - a sort of "protein paste" I guess (and I'm even a bit phobic about many insects). It could be a great additive to other foods and perhaps most importantly given that it has the potential to be much cheaper than traditional meats it could be a very important way of supplementing diets especially in poor regions of the world where meat and protein in general is too expensive to be consumed in sufficient quantities for health.

[MacNutz2]

I've had deep fried rice bugs with killer hot sauce, they were pretty good but the same vender had many things that were difficult to enjoy, to put it mildly

The emotional response to pain is much more important than we realize. Most would be surprised how much stronger they would be without it. That reaction is important for our survival and propagation but learning to control or ignore that factor is a common goal among athletes.Especially fighters who tend to be very aware of it

[markdzima]

With regard to the subject of insect and arthropod pain, do you think we should ever care to try to minimize their pain? For instance, should we care about vivisection or dropping lobsters alive into boiling water? Or are such concerns inappropriate to their level of cognition?

[iamcuriousblue]

Interesting topic, because I've given it some thought with regard to killing insects in a kill jar when collecting them. They definitely react negatively to the ethyl acetate, try to run away from the source, try to wipe the chemical fumes off, etc, and I have a hard time saying that doesn't involve some kind of suffering, even when there's no "higher" cognitive process involved. And insects can have some pretty complex behaviors, which would indicate cognition on some level.

[ShallowBeThyGames]

I'm the same, I couldn't eat something that was clearly an insect. Whilst on holiday in Australia, I had witchetty grub soup and a witchetty grub smoothie. The soup was... edible, but I think that comes down to preparation. The smoothie, however, being mixed with fruits was tip top and hardly noticable as any other smoothie. I'd recommend both and if they were commercially available, would probably eat them quite often.