AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Octopus brain3/18/2023 ![]() When the arm has relevant information like locating food, it sends that information to the main brain who then determines what to do next. This leaves the main brain looking out for predators. The arms will wiggle through crevices, contracting or relaxing the muscles, feeling, and tasting, determining whether it’s found a tasty treat or just an empty hole. Chelsea Bennice So, how does an octopus brain work?Īn octopus’s main brain sends commands to its ganglia like “search for food”. The Common Octopus ( Octopus vuglaris) has about 500 million neurons in its body which is around the same as a dog! We love callin’ em squishy puppy dogs! □ They have come a long way from their mollusk cousins who, on average, have around 20,000 neurons. □□□Posted by Warren K Carlyle IV on Tuesday, SeptemBy: Lawrence Scheele Fun fact I love octopuses so much! Endlessly fascinating. I came acorss this video by Lawrence Scheele that showed a banded string arm octopus seemingly being pulled in various directions- also you can see this lil’octo is regrowing back two arms lost in a fight. Imagine being on the couch □ and telling your arm go find the remote because you’re trying to concentrate on your show. Octopuses have a decentralized nervous system with 2/3 of their neurons are located in their arms- I always imagined that a young octopus had to get acclimated to being pulled various directions by it's arms being that octopus arms can make decisions without having to consult with the main brain. “So while the brain isn’t quite sure where the arms are in space, the arms know where each other are and this allows the arms to coordinate during actions like crawling.” “The octopus’ arms have a neural ring that bypasses the brain, and so the arms can send information to each other without the brain being aware of it,” said behavioural neuroscientist Dominic Sivitilli of the University of Washington. A better use of brain power would be keeping an eye out for predators and remembering where the best spots to eat are! We imagine that it’s really important that the central brain isn’t overwhelmed with the input from thousands of tasting, smelling, feeling, sensing super suckers. Have you ever heard the fact that an octopus has 9 brains? We refer to the ganglia in each arm as a satellite brain communicating between each other. With these neural powers combined, octopus arms can perform tasks without communicating with the central brain and is said to have a brain of its own. The octopus’ arm nervous system consists of: … Clusters of neurons spread throughout the body that can carry nerve signals to and from the central nervous system. Octopuses have this same neural network however, it’s a little more spread out than ours. Something as simple as picking up a cup requires our brain to send a message to the muscles in our hand and fingers to contract. They create pathways that help relay information around the body. ![]() Neurons are the network that makes up our central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and peripheral nervous system (consisting of nerves and groups of ganglia).
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |