Pain Resistance in Mole-Rats
Naked mole-rats are weird. Native to East Africa, they live underground in highly ordered and hierarchical colonies with a single breeding queen, more like ants or termites than mammals. Some of their most striking physiological adaptations include an extraordinarily long lifespan (30+ years), apparent resistance to cancer, and resistance to extremely low levels of oxygen and high levels of carbon dioxide.
But it turns out naked mole-rats are not completely alone; they come from a family of weirdos. In my latest Animal Minds post, I discuss what researchers have discovered about pain insensitivity in naked mole-rats and some of their close relatives.
Read the story here: Pain Insensitivity in Mole-Rats.
Emotional Mirror Neurons in Rats
Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have demonstrated that specific neurons in the rat brain are active both when a rat experiences pain itself and when it observes another rat in pain. The results, published today in Current Biology, suggest that sharing the emotions of others is a common mammalian trait.
Read my article on the study here: Rats Feel One Another's Pain.
