Maybe this has been addressed somewhere and I missed it, but is there research on how snails might experience pain? It seems like there’s particular doubt about whether bivalves experience sensation. How close are snails to bivalves in that way?
Hey Julia! I partially address that point in the section that Linch indicated. As you say, whether snails have a capacity for valenced experience is still uncertain. When compared to bivalves, snails have more diverse and specialized sensory organs. As snails are motile and active foragers, they display a wider range of behaviors, and that is reflected in greater neural complexity. For instance, snails show nociceptive responses, like avoidance behavior in response to high temperatures (not surprisingly, several sources that provide instructions for cooking snails mention the attempts of snails to escape boiling water). However, relatively little is known about the anatomical organization and actual functions of most neurons in their ganglionic regions. I must admit that I haven’t investigated any bivalves in detail. Still, for what I know, the case for snail sentience is much better than the evidence for bivalve sentience.
Maybe this has been addressed somewhere and I missed it, but is there research on how snails might experience pain? It seems like there’s particular doubt about whether bivalves experience sensation. How close are snails to bivalves in that way?
Hey Julia! I partially address that point in the section that Linch indicated. As you say, whether snails have a capacity for valenced experience is still uncertain. When compared to bivalves, snails have more diverse and specialized sensory organs. As snails are motile and active foragers, they display a wider range of behaviors, and that is reflected in greater neural complexity. For instance, snails show nociceptive responses, like avoidance behavior in response to high temperatures (not surprisingly, several sources that provide instructions for cooking snails mention the attempts of snails to escape boiling water). However, relatively little is known about the anatomical organization and actual functions of most neurons in their ganglionic regions.
I must admit that I haven’t investigated any bivalves in detail. Still, for what I know, the case for snail sentience is much better than the evidence for bivalve sentience.
Thanks!
It was touched upon very briefly here:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/C8247akhZpyMXkRb3/snails-used-for-human-consumption-the-case-of-meat-and-slime#Are_snails_sentient_individuals__If_so__how_should_they_be_morally_considered_