Nonetheless, recent work has undermined these assertions (e.g., ). What, then, can we say about the probability of pain in insects-and the potential importance of insect welfare? Some scientists have expressed skepticism about insect pain, pointing to their small nervous systems and apparently reflexive nocifensive behaviors. Common sense dictates that such probability-shifting evidence is sufficient for us to consider the dog’s welfare. None of these lines of evidence formally prove that the dog experiences pain, but collectively, they make this highly likely. The dog winces, limps, licks their wound, avoids the place where they were injured, and seeks out analgesic drugs. For example, imagine an injured dog with neuroanatomy and behavior similar to the human case. These clues can shift the probability of pain, even without delivering decisive proof. To understand whether an animal feels pain, researchers search for clues in their nervous systems and behavior. While we can determine that humans feel pain when they describe their experiences, this approach is obviously impossible for animals. Pain is hard to identify in nonhuman animals because unpleasant feelings might not accompany simple withdrawal and other behavioral responses. This feeling is distinct from nociception: the unconscious process of detecting and avoiding harmful stimuli. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: MB reports a relationship with Rethink Priorities that includes: consulting.ĭo insects feel pain? Pain is an unpleasant subjective experience that often accompanies injury.

was funded as a National Science Foundation (NSF) postdoctoral research fellow, Grant Number 2109399 ( ). studentship from Queen Mary University of London ( ). received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant/Award Number 851145 ( ). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.įunding: A.C. Citation: Crump A, Gibbons M, Barrett M, Birch J, Chittka L (2023) Is it time for insect researchers to consider their subjects’ welfare? PLoS Biol 21(6):Ĭopyright: © 2023 Crump et al.

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