3 ms·

Their conclusion that "Male odors seemed to act like painkillers" seems like only one of several possible interpretations? My first reaction was that the possi

by cmyr 12y ago

Their conclusion that "Male odors seemed to act like painkillers" seems like only one of several possible interpretations? My first reaction was that the possible presence of other male mammals provided a selection bias for individuals who displayed less pain. Amongst individuals of the same species, showing pain would be a sign of weakness, obviously, but it might be a similar marker for possible predators. So perhaps all the animals are feeling the same discomfort, but those who sense other males are less willing to perform their discomfort behaviourally?

Jemaclus 12y ago
The article addresses this: > Further testing showed that the rodents exposed to male odors were actually feeling less pain, rather than simply hiding the pain they were in. The male aroma ramped up their stress levels, which deadened the hurt. “It’s really astounding that such a robust effect could have been missed for so many years,” Mogil says. Though, to be fair, they don't go into detail about how exactly they determined that the rodent was "actually feeling less pain"...
- Blahah 12y ago
  It's properly addressed in the actual paper [0]: True SIA should be accompanied by decreased immediate-early gene expression in the pain-processing neurons of the spinal cord dorsal horn; we observed a dramatic (≥50%) decrease in Fos protein–positive neurons in mice injected with zymosan and exposed to male but not female experimenters or shirts (Kruskal-Wallis test statistic: 12.0, degrees of freedom = 4, P < 0.05; Fig. 2d). Much is known about the neurochemistry of SIA, which exists in opioid (naloxone-reversible9), non-opioid (cannabinoid-1 (CB1) receptor–mediated10) and mixed opioid/non-opioid11 forms. The male experimenter SIA seen here was found to be the latter, as it was blocked (observer × drug interaction: F3,56 = 2.8, P < 0.05) by the broad-spectrum opioid receptor antagonist naloxone (1 mg per kg body weight (mg/kg); P < 0.05), by the inverse CB1 receptor agonist AM-251 (10 mg/kg; P < 0.05) and by a combination of the two drugs (P < 0.01), at doses not affecting pain sensitivity per se (Fig. 2e). In other words, pain in mice is associated with a particular protein binding neurons in a particular part of the brain. The researchers showed that in mice handled by men, the proportion of those neurons bound by the pain-associated protein was significantly decreased, supporting the hypothesis that male-handled mice are actually experiencing less pain. http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmeth.2935.html http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmeth...
speeder 12y ago
If you think about it, feeling less actual pain is necessary. For example, you are alone at your home and bump your little finger on a chair, it hurts like hell. But in a warzone, or if you are fighting for you life with a a animal attacking you, or if you are fearful in a certain situation, you can get shot, stabbed, break bones, and still function much better (of course, to a point...) than when you hit your finger in a chair... Not because you are pretending to have less pain, but because if you feel pain now, you die (after you are "safe" you can feel your pain later...)

by cmyr 12y ago

Jemaclus 12y ago

The article addresses this: > Further testing showed that the rodents exposed to male odors were actually feeling less pain, rather than simply hiding the pain they were in. The male aroma ramped up their stress levels, which deadened the hurt. “It’s really astounding that such a robust effect could have been missed for so many years,” Mogil says. Though, to be fair, they don't go into detail about how exactly they determined that the rodent was "actually feeling less pain"...

Blahah 12y ago
It's properly addressed in the actual paper [0]: True SIA should be accompanied by decreased immediate-early gene expression in the pain-processing neurons of the spinal cord dorsal horn; we observed a dramatic (≥50%) decrease in Fos protein–positive neurons in mice injected with zymosan and exposed to male but not female experimenters or shirts (Kruskal-Wallis test statistic: 12.0, degrees of freedom = 4, P < 0.05; Fig. 2d). Much is known about the neurochemistry of SIA, which exists in opioid (naloxone-reversible9), non-opioid (cannabinoid-1 (CB1) receptor–mediated10) and mixed opioid/non-opioid11 forms. The male experimenter SIA seen here was found to be the latter, as it was blocked (observer × drug interaction: F3,56 = 2.8, P < 0.05) by the broad-spectrum opioid receptor antagonist naloxone (1 mg per kg body weight (mg/kg); P < 0.05), by the inverse CB1 receptor agonist AM-251 (10 mg/kg; P < 0.05) and by a combination of the two drugs (P < 0.01), at doses not affecting pain sensitivity per se (Fig. 2e). In other words, pain in mice is associated with a particular protein binding neurons in a particular part of the brain. The researchers showed that in mice handled by men, the proportion of those neurons bound by the pain-associated protein was significantly decreased, supporting the hypothesis that male-handled mice are actually experiencing less pain. http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmeth.2935.html http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmeth...

speeder 12y ago

If you think about it, feeling less actual pain is necessary. For example, you are alone at your home and bump your little finger on a chair, it hurts like hell. But in a warzone, or if you are fighting for you life with a a animal attacking you, or if you are fearful in a certain situation, you can get shot, stabbed, break bones, and still function much better (of course, to a point...) than when you hit your finger in a chair... Not because you are pretending to have less pain, but because if you feel pain now, you die (after you are "safe" you can feel your pain later...)