![]() ![]() Indeed, domesticated animals like dogs can be trained to lay still in the noisy fMRI machine long enough for scientists to observe their brain activity in response to certain stimulation.īut when it comes to wild animals, like octopuses, studying their brain in real-time is a challenge. They are tremendously powerful tools for advancing what humans know about cognition, both in animals and in people. Short for functional magnetic resonance imaging, these machines let scientists see in real-time, and in three dimensions, how neurons fire as one is thinking or moving one's body. Fortunately, today we have better ways of figuring out how cognition occurs - in particular, the fMRI machine. In fact, ablative brain surgery is largely how early neuroscientists gained their bearings when first mapping the brain this involved selectively excising certain sections of animal brains and observing what limbs or body parts ceased functioning.īut brains are extremely complex, and this blunt way of smashing neural connections oversimplifies how brains work. This is when scientists intentionally cause brain damage to the creature, precisely destroying clusters of neurons, to see what stops working. Hence, the octopus' brain is the subject of study from animal neuroscientists - and one of the main ways we've learned about octopus brains is through lesioning studies. ![]() It's not easy to install an electrode implant on something that doesn't have a skull where electrical wires can be anchored. Many people speculate that their complex neuroscience, which evolved so differently from our own, is the closest humans will ever get to encountering an intelligent alien. But their brains are especially weird because they aren't organized the same way primate brains are. Those iconic, flexible tentacles are chock full of neurons as well, allowing octopus appendages to behave like they have a mind of their own. Humans see something familiar yet distorted in the intelligence of cephalopods, like a funhouse mirror of self-awareness. Part of the octopus' charm is in its contradictions: they are surprisingly alien-looking, yet express so much curiosity and problem-solving prowess - human traits if there ever were any. The 2020 documentary " My Octopus Teacher" was showered with accolades for its poignant story depicting a filmmaker's affectionate relationship with an octopus. Their bizarre bodies, blobby shape and unique intelligence rank octopuses among the most beloved creatures of the ocean. ![]()
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