Why the octopus brain is so extraordinary Cláudio L Guerra YouTubevia torchbrowser com

what could octopuses possibly have in common with us afterall they dont have lungs, spines or even a poral nerve on which we can all agree on But what they do have is the ability to solve puzzles learn through observation and even use tools just like some other animals we know and what makes octopus intelligence so amazing is that it comes from a biological strucure completely different from ours The 200 and so species are moluscs belonging to the order cepholapida Greek for head feet those heads contain impressively large brains with a brain to body ratio similar to that of other intelligent animals in a complex nervous systems with about as many neurons as that of a dog but instead of being cenralized in the brain These 500 million neurons are spread out in a network of interconnected ganglia organised into three basic structures The central brain only contains about ten percent of the neurons while the two huge optic globes contain about 30 percent the other 60 percent are in the tentacles which for humans would be like our arms having mind of their own this is where things get even more interesting Vertebrates like us have a rigid skeleton to support our bodies with joints that allows us to move but not all type of movements are allowed You cant bend your knee backwards or bend your forearm in the middle for example cephalopads on the other hand have no bone at all allowong them to bend their knee at any point and in any direction so shaping their tentacles into any one of the virtually limitless number of possible arrangements is unlike anythiing we are use to 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 motor center activates the appropriate muscles allowing you to reach it with your arm grab it with your hand , bend your elbow joint and bring it to your mouth For an octopus the process is qutie different rather than a body map the cephallopoid brain has a behaviour of library so when an octopus sees food its brain doesnt activate a specific body part but rather a behahioural response to grab as the signals travel through the network the arm neurons pick up the message and jump into action to command the movement as soon as the arm touches the food a muscle activation wave travels all the way to the arm to the base while the arm sends another wave from the base to the tip the signals meets half way between the food and the arm letting it know to bend at that spot what all this means is that each of an octopuses eight arms arms can essentially think for itself this gives it amazing flexibilty and creativity when facing a new situation or problem whether its opening a bottle to reach food escaping through a maze moving around in a new environment, changing the texture and colour of its skin to blend into the sceenery or even mimicking other creatures to scare away enemies cephalopoids may have evolved complex brains long before our vertebrates relatives. and ocotpus intelligence isnt just used for octopuses their radically different nervous systems in autonomusly thinking appenditures have inspired new research in developing flexible robots made of soft materials and studying how intelligence can ariseo along such a divergent evolutionary path can help us understand more about intelligence and consciousness in general who knows what other forms of intelligence life are possible? or how they process the world around them