In the first scientific study, researchers recorded the brain activity of live octopuses that move freely and happily in their octopus actions.
This extraordinary feat was accomplished by implanting electrodes into the animal’s brain and a data recorder under the skin that could record brain activity for 12 hours. Exactly what the footage means has yet to be deciphered, but the research represents a first step in understanding the strange and complex minds of these amazing sea monsters.
“If we want to understand how the brain works, octopuses are the ideal animal to study compared to mammals,” says octopus researcher Tamar Gutnick from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan and the University of Naples Federico II in Italy.
“They had large brains, unusually unique bodies, and advanced cognitive abilities that evolved very differently from vertebrates.”
Octopuses are very intelligent and very curious animals. Not only that, he is incredibly agile, with eight boneless arms, gifted with manipulation and access to skills unmatched in the animal world.
Therefore, trying to attach anything to an octopus using its entire body is a wasted effort. And if you want to know how an octopus’s brain works under normal conditions, it has to use its entire body. Non-invasive devices that stick to the outside of the body, such as electrode caps, will not work.
“If we tried to plug them in, they would tear them to pieces,” he said. Gutnik explained“So we needed a way to get the equipment completely out of their reach, by putting it under their skin.”
The solution includes electrodes and a data recorder designed to record the brain activity of free-flying birds. These devices are often protected by a hard plastic waterproof casing which has a relatively large profile and is therefore unsuitable for octopus transplants, so the team developed a slim plastic tubing casing.
For their work, they selected three octopuses of one species called cyanalso known as the great blue octopus, is a large octopus with a cavity in the mantle – the middle part of the body – that can accommodate a data recorder.
The researchers implanted electrodes inside each anesthetized octopus directly into the superior and middle frontal lobes. These electrodes are connected to a data recording device located in the mantle of each octopus.
Each data logger contains a battery that allows continuous recording for 12 hours. The researchers returned the animals to their tanks and allowed them to wake up and go about their normal activities, with their brain activity monitored. Meanwhile, video cameras were installed to record what they were doing so the researchers could compare brain activity to the behavior of each octopus.
After the recording was complete, the researchers euthanized the octopus and retrieved the data recorder. They identified several long-term patterns of brain activity, including some that are similar to those seen in mammals. However, the other pattern is unlike anything else in the scientific literature.
What they mean is a mystery. Patterns cannot be associated with any behavior shown in the video. However, this is not necessarily surprising. The area of the brain where the electrodes were attached was associated with learning and memory, and the octopuses were not required to perform any learning or memory tasks during the experiment.
This could be the focus of future experimentation, perhaps on a wider range of subjects and genres.
“This is a very important study, but it is only the first step,” he said. says zoologist Michael Cubapreviously at OIST and now at Federico II University of Naples.
“Octopuses are very smart, but at the moment, we know very little about how their brains work. This technology means we now have the ability to see inside their minds while they are performing certain tasks. It is very attractive and powerful.”
Research published in Current Biology.
