Can fetuses feel pain?

Can Healthy Fetuses Show Facial Expressions of “Pain” or “Distress”?

BACKGROUND With advances of research on fetal behavioural development, the question of whether we can identify fetal facial expressions and determine their developmental progression, takes on greater importance. In this study we investigate longitudinally the increasing complexity of combinations of facial movements from 24 to 36 weeks gestation in a sample of healthy fetuses using frame-by-fra...

How do babies feel pain?

Functional MRI studies suggest that healthy full-term newborn babies experience some aspects of pain in a similar way to adults.

Nonpeptidergic Circuits Feel Your Pain

Pain consists of both a sensory component and an affective component. In this issue of Neuron, Braz and colleagues genetically targeted the transneuronal tract tracer wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) to nonpeptidergic nociceptive neurons. They found that these neurons give rise to a specialized multisynaptic circuit that links pain signals in the periphery to limbic/affective regions of the brain.

Can Teenagers Feel the Pain of Others? Peeking into the Teenage Brain to Find Empathy

Should fish feel pain ? A plant perspective

Key (2016) claims fish that fish do not feel pain because they lack the necessary neuronal architecture: their responses to noxious stimuli, according to Key, are executed automatically without any feelings. However, as pointed out by many of his commentators, this conclusion is not convincing. Plants might provide some clues. Plants are not usually thought to be very active behaviorally, but t...