New power for human males!

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Figleaf23

The article unfortunately doesn't mention how they were able to link the effect specifically to a stress response. I'm curious about that.

This is not the only article that has been written about this discovery.

Some of the other ones went into further detail. One of the important points that makes a lot of current research potentially moot is that when there was a male researcher pain response was 28% lower. Meaning that it took 28% greater intensity for the animal to even register pain. They linked this to a stress response rather then the kind of counter-intuitive direct correlation that having a male in the room made the animals more resistant to pain due to supportive reasons.

My understanding of how this process went down:

Discovery: We have conclusive evidence that says that when there is a male researcher in the room the mice become more tolerant to pain.

Potential causes:
1- This is supportive in some way
2- This is negative in some way.

2a- The mice are being put under stress by the smell of a top predator and the release of stress hormones is suppressing pain.
2aa- evolutionary concept: If mice can be resistant to pain when there is a predator around then they are more likely to be able to escape to safety during a predator attack, mice that can escape to safety get to breed, and thus this becomes a trait of being a mouse over time.
2ab- Blood tests performed on mice when a male researcher and female researcher are in the room are performed; male test results come back with higher stress related hormones in the blood.

There of course now requires a lot of confirmation testing. Make men wear sealed suits and tend to mice (is there a visual component), have some mice that are administers entirely by robots, find some very manly looking women (taller, broader shoulders, etc) tend to mice and check them again (again checks for visual component).

Spray a woman with male scent hormones, spray a man with female scent hormones; spray robots with either (how much does it take to get a response, does an increase amount of hormones make the effect stronger or weaker)

There is still a LOT of research to be done in this category, and stress is only the most likely cause.