Our perception of pain plays a huge part, in the extent of how much
pain we feel. It has long been known that the feeling of both physical
and emotional pain is ‘all in the mind’. Physical hurt is a sensation
that both humans and animals endure and it is important as it functions
to warn the organism against tissue damage. The mechanisms involved in
pain perception are very similar in both humans and animals, as both
detect pain stimuli by sensory nerve endings known as nociceptors. The
pain impulses are then transmitted along a number of pathways to
specific regions of the brain where the pain is then processed.
But the question remains as to whether non-human animals suffer emotional pain in the same way that we do?
Psychologists
have conducted experiments to illustrate that emotional pain is just as
real and intense as physical pain. The findings from their experiment
showed that emotional pain altered performance more than physical pain
and the emotional pain endured lingered for a greater amount of time in
the subjects’ memory.
Some scientists have suggested that only
primates, such as great apes and Old-World monkeys can feel emotional
pain because of their large, well-defined neocortex, which is the
‘thinking area’ of the cortex. Subsequent research, however, has
provided evidence that other animals such as dogs, monkeys, cats, and
birds show signs of emotional pain and depression. In saying this animal
experimentation on these animals occurs regularly, especially in terms
of understanding the underlying mechanisms involved in many diseases.
This is mainly because of their similarities to humans — but it is
precisely these similarities that make their suffering and use so
inexcusable. Non human primates are highly intelligent and social
animals with complex behavioral and psychological needs. It is precisely
these attributes which are so desirable to neurobiologists studying
behaviour, but in turn is a serious cause of concern for animal
activists.
