Octopuses are not like humans - they are invertebrates with eight arms and are more closely related to clams and snails. Despite this, they have evolved complex nervous systems with as many neurons as in the brains of dogs, allowing them to exhibit a wide range of complex behaviors. This makes th
This groundbreaking discovery offers new insights into the evolution of complex nervous systems in invertebrate species and has the potential to inspire the development of autonomous underwater devices and other robotics engineering innovations.
, who want to understand how alternative nervous system structures can perform the same functions as those in humans, such as sensing limb movement and controlling movement., Hale and her colleagues discovered a new and surprising feature of the octopus nervous system: a structure that allows the intramuscular nerve cords , which help the octopus sense its arm movement, to connect arms on opposite sides of the animal.
Thanks to the support for cephalopod research offered by the Marine Biological Laboratory, Hale and her team were able to use young octopuses for the study, which were small enough to allow the researchers to image the base of all eight arms at once. This let the team trace the INCs through the tissue to determine their path.
Through imaging, the team determined that in addition to running the length of each arm, at least two of the four INCs extend into the body of the octopus, where they bypass the two adjacent arms and merge with the INC of the third arm over. This pattern means that all the arms are connected symmetrically.
“Some older papers have shared interesting insights,” said Hale. “One study from the 1950s showed that when you manipulate an arm on one side of the octopus with lesioned brain areas, you’ll see the arms responding on the other side. So it could be that these nerves allow for decentralized control of a reflexive response or behavior.
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