We don't know, but Binyamin Hochner, a professor of neurobiology, believes that the octopus brain may follow the theory of embodied intelligence which was originally developed for autonomous robotics. The basic theory is that the body is influencing the mind rather than the mind influencing the body. Instead of employing top-down thinking, the octopus relies on a bottom-up system where a group of stimuli will inform it of the surroundings' situation. Top-down thinkers use premade beliefs and search for the stimuli to back it up –the majority of humans are top-down thinkers.
What's interesting is that, despite being intelligent, octopuses are not social creatures. They spend almost their entire lives alone. It's why they were believed not to be smart animals for a very long time. Aristotle even described the octopus as 'a stupid creature' but that's far from the truth. Octopuses are very intelligent, being able to untwist jars from the inside, solve mazes and logic puzzles. It means the idea that intelligence is based on the development of social behaviour should be rethought. There must be another major factor aside from this and their number of neurons.
The majority of an octopus's neurons are not arranged to be centralised like ours since they have a distributed intelligence system. 60% of their neurons are found in their arms which is why some believe they have nine brains. Although this is not strictly true, octopuses do have clusters of neurons, one for each arm, that are semi-autonomous. These are almost like a brain but they cannot think for themselves. They sort the necessary information from the clutter and send it to the brain so that the octopus can decide what to do with the information. This avoids overwhelm from unnecessary inputs.
The octopus's vertical lobe – which with humans, is the store of long-term memory – is where sensory information is sent. This can be sorted into long or short-term memory outside of this lobe. The vertical lobe is also vital for an octopus's learning ability. When removed, the octopus will suffer extreme impaired memory and reduced overall learning capabilities.
Questions to be answered:
Could there be a link between autism and octopus neurology? To elaborate:
- It is common for autistic people to think with the 'bottom-up' system, like octopuses do.
- Sensory sensitivity in both austistic people and octopuses can be portrayed through selective eating, or hiding from the stimulant. Conversely, sensory seeking, also common in autism, is demonstrated through thorough touch with octopuses.
-They've also evolved an complex distributed system purely to avoid overwhelm.
What makes an organism intelligent?
What can we learn about our own neurology whilst looking at octopus brains?
REFERENCES
An Embodied View of Octopus Neurobiology
Binyamin Hochner
Current Biology, Volume 22 No 20
2012
What is in an Octopus's Mind?
Jennifer Mather
Animal Sentience 26(1)
2019
Where is it Like to be an Octopus?
Sidney Carls-Diamante
2022
Date Published: 20th October 2023
Updated: 14th January 2024
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