Supposedly, many "lower" orders of life have the ability to sense touch, but have no pain receptors. Thrashing may be an attempt to escape from percieved danger, but not an actual reaction to "pain" per se.
There is also the possibility that in many cases, ass the brain (or whatever) dies, it has a tendency to fire off random signals that make for some awful, spasmodic twitching, even though it is technically dead..
That being said, aside from becoming a lobster, it is damn near impossible to tell if it is just twitching, or the lobster screaming "HOLY SHIT, I'M BURNING!!!! AHHHHHHH!!! FOR CHRISTS SAKE, MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!"
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