Severed sensation

Evidence of severed human heads living on for a few moments is anecdotal, because of course it would be highly unethical to test such a thing. The most recent story is related by a U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War who was in an automobile accident with his friend in 1989. They were riding in a taxi when it collided with a truck, pinning him to his seat and decapitating his companion:

"My friend's head came to rest face up, and (from my angle) upside-down. As I watched, his mouth opened and closed no less than two times. The facial expressions he displayed were first of shock or confusion, followed by terror or grief. I cannot exaggerate and say that he was looking all around, but he did display ocular movement in that his eyes moved from me, to his body, and back to me. He had direct eye contact with me when his eyes took on a hazy, absent expression . . . and he was dead."

Meanwhile, back at the science lab, a team of British and Italian researchers just published a study proving that the detached arms of octopuses retain the ability to recoil from unpleasant stimuli. The image above shows a tentacle withdrawing from a petri dish full of acid. The experiment involved euthanizing the creatures and severing their limbs. Although the nervous systems of octopi are very different from ours, their proven intelligence has prompted the European Union to ban – as unethical – any future experiments involving their pain or distress.

Posted with Blogsy