It’s hard for the octopus to pick just one party trick. This magnificent creature swims via jet propulsion, shoots inky chemicals at its enemies, and can change its skin to blend in with its surroundings within seconds. Now, a team of University of Oregon (UO) researchers has investigated yet ano
Fluorescent image of the octopus brain showing the location of different different types of neurons Credit: Niell Lab
They lay out a detailed map of the octopus’s visual system in a new scientific paper. In the map, they classify different types of neurons in a part of the brain devoted to vision. This results in is a valuable resource for other neuroscientists, providing details that could guide future experiments. In addition, it could teach us something about the evolution of brains and visual systems more broadly.Cris Niell’s lab at the UO studies vision, mostly in mice.
“Seeing how the octopus eye convergently evolved similarly to ours, it’s cool to think about how the octopus visual system could be a model for understanding brain complexity more generally,” said Mea Songco-Casey, a graduate student in Niell’s lab and the first author on the paper. “For example, are there fundamental cell types that are required for this very intelligent, complex brain?”
In some cases, the scientists pinpointed particular groups of neurons in distinctive spatial arrangements — for example, a ring of neurons around the optic lobe that all signal using a molecule called octopamine. Fruit flies use this molecule, which is similar to adrenaline, to increase visual processing when the fly is active. So it could perhaps have a similar role in octopuses.
However, the map didn’t reveal sets of neurons that clearly transferred over from humans or other mammalian brains, as the researchers thought it might. “There are a lot of genes where we have no idea what their function is, because we haven’t sequenced the genomes of a lot of cephalopods,” Pungor said. Without genetic data from related species as a point of comparison, it’s harder to deduce the function of particular neurons.
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