WIRED Science blog, May 10th, 2010.
Mice in pain have facial expressions that are very similar to human facial expressions, according to scientists who have developed the “mouse grimace scale.” The pain expressions of mice could help researchers gauge the effectiveness of new drugs.
People have been using similar facial-expression coding systems in babies and other humans who are unable to verbally express their pain. “No one has every looked for facial expression of pain in anything other than humans,” said Jeffery Mogil of McGill University, co-author of the study published on May 9 in Nature Methods. Read More >