In article <2u9pct$qt0 at oac4.hsc.uth.tmc.edu>,
jstream at girch1.med.uth.tmc.edu (Rifle River) wrote:
> He stated that a lobster could not feel pain because it
> lacked a cerebral cortex.
OK I grant you that this could be true dependent on how you
define the word feel. I had a discussion with a labmate
before posting and in our "infinite graduate student wisdom"
we agreed that to feel is to sense. These inverts have ways
of sensing pain, evident by the defensive behaviors that
occur immediately after the pain and for a long duration
following the pain. Not only do they show the fast acting
reflexes, but they also display a memory of the pain (and
I think that's an important point). Granted, we can't know
exactly how an invert perceives pain, but I think it is
reasonable to say that they feel pain.
By the way, stick with Lobster, Aplysia can't compare
when it comes to the dinner table...
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Rifle River
jstream at girch1.med.uth.tmc.edu
