Octopuses, which are known to be very intelligent, always surprise people, especially with their ability to escape from strange environments. In fact, the acceptance on this issue is so clear that octopuses have recently been accepted as living beings with their own rights in England. However, MRI scans of the brains of four octopus species show large lifestyle-related differences in the size and texture of their brains, meaning that in fact only some are smart, or that some are significantly smarter than others.
The University of Queensland’s Brain Institute has an MRI machine that is much more powerful and therefore has much better resolution than those available in hospitals. Dr. Wen-Sung Chung put three species of octopus and several vampire squids into the machine and compared them with the results. His results were published in the journal Current Biology.
Vampire squid, thought to be a link between squid and octopuses, are difficult to catch, especially if you want their brains to be robust enough to be studied, Chung said. . . Still, Chung and colleagues managed to do this using specially designed fishing nets and found that these creatures, like less intelligent mammals, have smooth brains that are suited to a slow-moving lifestyle in a relatively simple environment.
On the other hand, Chung pointed out that the difficulties of finding prey at very deep depths caused vampire cuttlefish to not only develop very large eyes, but also very large optic lobes in their brains: “We don’t know what’s inside their brains, but it’s clear that visual input is very important.”
Considering that octopus brains are “donut-shaped,” in Chung’s terms, it’s not surprising that their structure is fundamentally different from that of humans. The authors hope their work will open the door to understanding the similarities and differences between the most intelligent species of vertebrates and invertebrates.
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