You won’t believe what the Octopuses' brain is capable of

10 min read time

After all, they don'thave

spines

We can allAgree 0n!

0r even a

But what they do

have

learn through observation

some other animals

we know

Just like

And what makes octopus

intelligenceS0 AMAZING

Is that, it comes from a biological

structure completely different from ours

The

or so speciesof octopuses are

M0LLUSKS

belonging to the order

Greek for

Headfeet

impressively

largebrains

These headscontain

With a brain to body ratio similar to that of

other intelligent animals

and a complex nervous system

with about as many neurons as that of a

Dog.

These500 million

neurons are spread out in a network of

interconnected ganglia

The other

are in the tentacles

which for humans

would be likeour arms

Havingminds of their own

This is where things get even more interesting

like us have a rigid skeleton to support our bodies

Vertebrates

Withjoints

that allow us to move

movements are allowed

Youcan't

or bend your

forearm

in themiddle

Cephalopods, on the other

hand

have N0 bones at all,

So shaping their tentacles into any one of the virtually limitless number of possible arrangements

Consider a simple task,

like grabbing and eating an apple.

The human brain contains a neurological map of our body.

When you see the apple, your brain's motor centre activates the appropriate muscles,

allowing you to reach out with your arm,grab it with your hand,

bend your elbow joint and bringit to your mouth.

For an octopus, the process is quite different.

Rather than a body map,

the cephalopod brain has a behaviour library

So when an octopus sees food,

but rather a behavioural response to grab.

As the signaltravels through the network, the arm neurons

pick up the message

and jump into action to command the movement.

And as soon as the arm

touches the food,

a muscle activation wave travels all the way through the arm to its base,

while the arm sends back another wave from the base to the tip.

letting it know to BEND at that spot.

The signals meet halfwaybetween the food and the base of the

arm,

What all this means is that!

each of an octopus's eight arms can essentially think for itself.

This gives it amazing flexibility

when facing a new situation or problem,

whether its opening a bottle to reach for food

escaping through a maze

moving around in a newenvironment

changing the texture

and the colour of its skin, to blend into the

scenery

T0 SCAREAWAY

ENEMIES.

Cephalopods may have evolved complex brains long before our vertebrate relatives.

And octopus intelligence

isn't just useful for octopuses.

Their radically different nervous system

And autonomously thinking appendages

have inspired

new research in developing flexible robots

made of soft

materials

And studying

how intelligence can arise along

such a divergent

evolutionary path

Can help us understand more about

Intelligence and

Consciousness

Who knows what other forms of intelligent life are possible,

or how they process the world around them.

That’s mother earth for you.