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2 Theories: 1) It's the brain's way of telling the body: "Another male is nearby, do not show weakness or submission because that male may try to dominate you

2 Theories: 1) It's the brain's way of telling the body: "Another male is nearby, do not show weakness or submission because that male may try to dominate you and you may end up getting into a fight or dying." I'd assume this evolutionary response would only work for same species scents. Apparently it works between species. Men have a tendency not to get into fights with confident men. 2) During a fight with another male, the mind needs to ignore pain in order to continue on and win the fight. In all species, males who didn't have this trait lost battles, died, and did not pass on their genes. Males who had this mutation didn't let the pain get to them, went on to win the fight, lived, reproduced, and passed on these characteristics.

serf 12y ago
a theory I had : perhaps due to past generations of male experimenters, mice have developed a central nervous system which deadens pain in the expectation of a painful experiment when exposed to male scents.
- vectorpush 12y ago
  What would be the selective advantage of pain resistance in the context of a lab environment? It seems to me like the rodent's chance of passing on it's genes would have no correlation with resistance to pain.
  - serf 12y ago
    That's a good question. We know that pain stresses the nervous system, and that it also increases incidence of depression. Both pain and depression lower survival chances, as they both increase the chances for negative effects on the host such as sudden weight fluctuation, abnormal sleep cycles, and uncoordinated muscle control. I have not worked in such a lab setting, so i'm unsure if any of the mice that survive experimentation are exterminated or repurposed. If repurposed, one can imagine that a pain-reduction schema would be useful in such environments for the sake of species proliferation. Mice/rats better suited to the pain thresholds required of them would eat better, sleep better, and ultimately breed more. Again, just an armchair theory and little more.
judk 12y ago
On the technical literature, these are called "evolutionary Just-So stories" after Rudyard Kipling. One can.just as easily make up theories that go the other way.

serf 12y ago

a theory I had : perhaps due to past generations of male experimenters, mice have developed a central nervous system which deadens pain in the expectation of a painful experiment when exposed to male scents.

vectorpush 12y ago
What would be the selective advantage of pain resistance in the context of a lab environment? It seems to me like the rodent's chance of passing on it's genes would have no correlation with resistance to pain.
- serf 12y ago
  That's a good question. We know that pain stresses the nervous system, and that it also increases incidence of depression. Both pain and depression lower survival chances, as they both increase the chances for negative effects on the host such as sudden weight fluctuation, abnormal sleep cycles, and uncoordinated muscle control. I have not worked in such a lab setting, so i'm unsure if any of the mice that survive experimentation are exterminated or repurposed. If repurposed, one can imagine that a pain-reduction schema would be useful in such environments for the sake of species proliferation. Mice/rats better suited to the pain thresholds required of them would eat better, sleep better, and ultimately breed more. Again, just an armchair theory and little more.

judk 12y ago

On the technical literature, these are called "evolutionary Just-So stories" after Rudyard Kipling. One can.just as easily make up theories that go the other way.