Virtual Research Seminar Series

Next Seminar - November 12 - 4pm GMT

Positive and negative affective states, motivational trade-offs, and consequences of tagging in a cockroach

Whether non-human animals are sentient is critical for determining how we act towards them. Key features of more complex mental worlds that justify a better standard of treatment are whether animals possess positive or negative mental states akin to moods and emotions (“affective states”) and if they feel pain.

Evidence is gathering that insects likely feel pain, but gaps in our understanding remain. Of the behavioural criteria used to assess the likelihood of feeling pain, evidence for the ability to make motivational trade-offs (flexible adjustments in behaviour to balance exposure to noxious stimuli) is absent in cockroaches (order Blattodea), despite their wide use as subjects in neuroscience. We have conducted a series of experiments showing the flexibility of cockroach (Blaptica dubia) motivational trade-offs, how injury affects motivational trade-offs, and, for the first time in an insect, the presence of motivational trade-offs in juveniles.

Meanwhile, evidence for negative affective states in insects is limited to a tiny handful of species, and evidence for positive affective states is contested. Our recent work suggests cockroaches can be placed in to negative affective states by exposure to light, and positive affective states by exposure to the scent of conspecifics. These experiments therefore support the presence of more complex mental worlds in cockroaches.

Finally, we have assessed the impact of two different types of tagging, RFID tags or visual tags used for object recognition, on cockroach movement using an AI-assisted tracker. I will discuss how the change in movement shown by cockroaches with the object-recognition tags could have welfare implications, and what cockroaches feeling pain and possessing affective states means for research, pest control, and other applications.

David Fisher | Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences | University of Aberdeen

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Upcoming Seminars

TBD: Stay tuned!

Past Seminars on our YouTube

September 2025 - “Blood Money: The history of horseshoe crabs in science and medicine” (Kristoffer Whitney; Associate Professor, Department of Science, Technology, and Society; Rochester Institute of Technology)

August 2025 - “How Can We Measure Sentience in an Insect?” (Matilda Gibbons; University of Pennsylvania, Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine)

June 2025 - “When and Why Are Motivational Trade-Offs Evidence of Sentience?” (Simon Brown, Research Officer, London School of Economics, UK)

May 2025 - “Investigations on the possibility of pain in crustaceans and changes in how these animals are used” (Emeritus Professor Bob Elwood; Queen’s University, Belfast, UK)

April 2025 - “The 3Rs Principles in Invertebrate Research” (Dr. Miriam A Zemanova; University of Fribourg, Switzerland)

October 2024 - “Identifying trends in reporting on the ethical treatment of insects in research” (Craig Perl, PhD; Insect Welfare Research Society, USA)

August 2024 - “The Sphex story: How humans kept repeating themselves” (Fred Keijzer, PhD; University of Groningen, the Netherlands)

June 2024 - “How honeybees think” (Andrew Barron, PhD; Macquarie University, AU)

April 2024 - “The moral status of insects” (Jeff Sebo, PhD; New York University, USA)

March 2024 - “The needs and means of using non-lethal methods in entomological research” (Gabor Lövei, PhD; Aarhus University & University of Debrecen & Marco Ferrante, PhD; Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany)

February 2024 - “Evaluating electrical stunning as a humane slaughter method for decapod crustaceans: Lessons learned when assessing sensitivity” (Amaya Albalat, PhD; University of Stirling, UK) - view slides here

December 2023 - “How the cricket feels and what the mealworm has to say: The influence of rearing environments on insect welfare in different food and feed production systems” (Alexander Haverkamp, PhD; Wageningen University, the Netherlands)

October 2023 - “Insect Sentience” (Lars Chittka, PhD; Queen Mary University of London, UK) - view recording of comparable talk at UFAW, here

August 2023 - “How Can We Know What is Good for Insects?” (Heather Browning, PhD; Southhampton University, UK)

June 2023 - “Insect welfare: Solid foundations for an emerging field” (Meghan Barrett, PhD; California State University Dominguez Hills, USA)