Unknown signals measured in octopus brain

An international team of researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan has managed to continuously record the brain activity of a free-moving specimen of a large blue octopus for 12 hours using implanted electrodes and data loggers. The animal was filmed in its aquarium at the same time and the recordings were synchronized with the brain waves (see video above).

Unusual slow oscillations
The OIST scientists were able to identify several very different patterns of brain activity, some of which resembled those of mammals in size and shape. But they also recorded very different ones – very long, slow oscillations – as never before described.

The study results are “a breakthrough in understanding how the octopus brain controls the animals’ behavior,” according to a statement from the OIST. “In addition, they provide information about the general principles necessary for the emergence of intelligence and knowledge,” the researchers write in the journal “Current Biology.”

“Extraordinary Cognitive Skills”
“They have big brains, amazingly unique bodies and advanced cognitive abilities that evolved completely differently from those of vertebrates,” said study researcher Tamar Gutnick, first author of the study and a fellow in the Department of Physics and Biology at the Okinawa Institute of Science. . and technology, quoted.

Puzzles about unknown brain activity patterns
So far, the scientists have been unable to assign the previously unknown brain patterns to any specific behavior of the cephalopods. In the next steps, they want to present the highly intelligent animals with learning and memory tasks – in the hope of solving the mystery of the unknown brain activity patterns.