In a scientific first, researchers have recorded brain activity from living octopuses moving freely and blithely going about their octopus business.
This remarkable feat was accomplished by implanting electrodes into the animals' brains and data loggers under the skin that could record 12 hours of brain activity. What precisely the recordings mean has yet to be decoded, but the research demonstrates a first step in understanding the strange and complicated minds of these magnificent sea beasts.
"They have a large brain, an amazingly unique body, and advanced cognitive abilities that have developed completely differently from those of vertebrates." Therefore, trying to attach anything to an octopus that has full use of its body is a futile endeavor. And if you want to know how an octopus's brain works in normal circumstances, it needs to fully use its body. Non-invasive equipment that sticks to the outside of the body, like an electrode cap, wouldn't work.,"so we needed a way of getting the equipment completely out of their reach, by placing it under their skin.
Researchers implanted the electrodes inside each anesthetized octopus directly into the vertical and median superior frontal lobes. These electrodes were connected to the data loggers tucked into each octopus's mantle.
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