Do Boiling Lobsters Feel Pain?
Animals without spines, or invertebrates, “have chain ganglia — groups of neurons connected by nerve fibers,” said Stevens. When stimulated, these chain ganglia cause muscles to contract. “It’s a very quick neuron response,” Stevens said. According to Stevens, the chain ganglia network is so simple it doesn’t even require a brain. “If you remove the head region of a lobster, the body of the lobster would still react the same way, because of the local reflexes … involving those chain ganglia,” he said. “When you drop a lobster in boiling water, or put a fishhook through a worm, those stimuli cause those muscles to contract,” Stevens said. “We describe that as pain because of the motor response, which is nothing more than neurons that have been stimulated.” But vertebrates with spines have much more advanced nervous systems and can feel real pain and suffering, Stevens explained. “In humans, there are … neurons talking through all parts of the brain. That’s a big difference,” Steven
