BiotechNews1

The large nerve cord running down each octopus arm is separated into segments, giving it precise control over movements and creating a spatial map of its suckers. Originally published by By Matt Wood, Assistant Director of Communications, Biological Sciences Division, University of Chicago on January 15, 2025 Octopus bimaculoides. Credit: Cassady Olson Octopus arms move with incredible dexterity, bending, twisting, and curling with nearly infinite degrees of freedom. New research from the University of Chicago revealed that the nervous system circuitry that controls arm movement in octopuses is segmented, giving these extraordinary creatures precise control across all eight arms and hundreds of suckers to explore their environment, grasp objects, and capture prey. "If you're going to have a nervous system that's controlling such dynamic movement, that's a good way to set it up," said Clifton Ragsdale, Ph.D., Professor of Neurobiology at UChicago and seni...

Originally published by Ben Turner, on April 27, 2023 By surgically attaching electrodes to octopuses, researchers have been able to peer inside the cephalopods’ minds for the very first time.  A Caribbean reef octopus (Octopus briareus) hunting at night at a coral reef in Curaçao. (Image credit: Wild Horizons/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Octopuses possess a brain wave that has n ever been seen before in animal s, along with others similar to those found in humans , first-of-their-kind brain recordings reveal. The groundbreaking study captured the first ever brain recordings of freely moving octopuses and was performed by implanting electrodes in the animals’ brains and connecting them to data loggers under their skin. The recordings have given scientists the very first inklings into the workings of cephalopod minds . The researchers published their findings March 27 in the journal Cell . Read more