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Cephalopod intelligence is a measure of the cognitive ability of the the cephalopod class of molluscs.

The difficulty of measuring intelligence in non-human animals makes it a challenging topic for scientific study, however in general intelligence is defined as the process of acquiring, storing in memory, retrieving, combining, comparing, and using in new contexts information and conceptual skills.[1] The study of cephalopod intelligence has an important comparative aspect in the understanding of animal cognition because it relies on a nervous system fundamentally different from that of vertebrates.[2] In particular, the Coleoidea subclass (cuttlefish, squid, and octopi), are thought to be the most intelligent invertebrates and an important example of advanced cognitive evolution in animals, though nautilus intelligence is also a subject of growing interest among zoologists.[3]

The scope of cephalopod intelligence and learning capability is controversial within the biological community, complicated by the inherit complexity quantifying non-vertebrate intelligence. In spite of this, the existence of impressive spatial learning capacity, navigational abilities, and predatory techniques in cephalopods is widely acknowledged.[4]

Brain size and structure

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Cephalopods have large, well-developed brains[5], and their brain-to-body-mass ratio is the largest among the invertebrates, falling between that of endothermic and ectothermic vertebrates.[6]

The nervous system of cephalopods is the most complex of the invertebrates.[7] The giant nerve fibers of the cephalopod mantle have been widely used for many years as experimental material in neurophysiology; their large diameter (due to lack of myelination) makes them relatively easy to study compared with other animals.[8]

Behavior

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Predation

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A veined octopus eating a crab.

Unlike most other molluscs, all cephalopods are active predators (with the possible exceptions of the bigfin squid and vampire squid). Their need to locate and capture their prey has likely been the driving evolutionary force behind the development of their intelligence.[9]

Crabs, the staple food source of most octopus species, present significant challenges with their powerful pincers and their potential to exhaust the cephalopod's respiration system from a prolonged pursuit. In the face of these challenges, octopuses will instead seek out lobster traps and steal the bait inside. They are also known to climb aboard fishing boats and hide in the containers that hold dead or dying crabs.[10][11]

Captive cephalopods have also been known to climb out of their aquaria, maneuver a distance of the lab floor, enter another aquarium to feed on the crabs, and return to their own aquariums.[12][13][14]

Communication

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Cephalopods are able to communicate visually using a diverse range of signals. To produce these signals, cephalopods can vary four types of communication elements: chromatic (skin coloration), skin texture (e.g. rough or smooth), posture, and locomotion. Changes in body appearance such as these are sometimes called polyphenism.[15] Some cephalopods are capable of rapid changes in skin colour and pattern through nervous control of chromatophores.[16] This ability almost certainly evolved primarily for camouflage, but squid use color, patterns, and flashing to communicate with each other in various courtship rituals.[15] Caribbean reef squid can send one message using color patterns to a squid on their right, while they send another message to a squid on their left.[17][18]

The Humboldt squid hunts schools of fish, showing extraordinary cooperation and communication in its hunting techniques. This is the first observation of such behaviour in invertebrates.[19]

Many cephalopods are social creatures; when isolated from their own kind, some species have been observed shoaling with fish.[20]

Learning

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Classical conditioning of cephalopods has been reported. In laboratory experiments, octopuses can be readily trained to distinguish between different shapes and patterns, and one study concluded that octopuses are capable of using observational learning;[21][22] however, this is disputed.[23][24][25]

Octopuses have also been observed in what has been described as play: repeatedly releasing bottles or toys into a circular current in their aquariums and then catching them.[26]

Tool use

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The octopus has repeatedly been shown to exhibit flexibility in the use of tools.

A small coconut octopus (4–5 cm in diameter) using a nut shell and clam shell as shelter.

At least four individuals of the veined octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus) have been observed retrieving discarded coconut shells, manipulating them, transporting them some distance, and then reassembling them to use as a shelter.[27] It is surmised that the octopuses originally used bivalves for the same purpose, before humans made coconut shells widely available on the sea floor.[28][29] Most hermit crabs use discarded shells of other species for habitation and other crabs choose sea anemones to cultivate on their carapaces as camouflage - as well, numerous insects use rocks, sand, leaves and other substrate materials as building materials; however, this behavior lacks the complexity of the octopus's fortress behavior, which involves picking up and carrying a tool to use later (however this argument remains contested by a number of other biologists who state that the shells actually provide continuous protection from abundant bottom-dwelling predators in their territory).[30]

Octopuses deliberately place stones, shells and even bits of broken bottle to form a wall that constricts the aperture to the den, another type of tool use.[31]

In laboratory studies, Octopus mercatoris, a small pygmy species of octopus, has been observed to block its lair using a plastic Lego brick.[32]

Smaller individuals of the common blanket octopus (Tremoctopus violaceus) hold the tentacles of the Portuguese man o' war (whose poison they are immune to), both as means of protection and as a method of capturing prey.[33]

Problem-solving ability

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The highly sensitive suction cups and prehensile arms of octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish allow them to hold and manipulate objects. However, unlike vertebrates, the motor skills of octopuses do not seem to depend upon mapping their body within their brains, as the ability to organize complex movements is not thought to be linked to particular arms.[34]

  • Octopus opening a container with a screw cap

At the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, an octopus named Otto was known to juggle his fellow tank-mates around, as well as throw rocks to smash the aquarium glass. On more than one occasion, Otto even caused short circuits by crawling out of his tank and shooting a jet of water at the overhead lamp.[35]

Protective legislation

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An octopus in a zoo

Due to their intelligence, cephalopods are commonly protected by animal testing regulations that do not usually apply to invertebrates.

In the UK from 1993 to 2012, the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) was the only invertebrate protected under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.[36]

Cephalopods are the only invertebrates protected under the 2010 European Union directive "on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes".[37]

See also

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Further reading

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  • So you think you're smarter than a cephalopod? by Wendy Williams, At the Smithsonian's Ocean Portal.
  • What behavior can we expect of octopuses? by Dr. Jennifer Mather, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge and Roland C. Anderson, The Seattle Aquarium.
  • Is the octopus really the invertebrate intellect of the sea? by Doug Stewart. In: National Wildlife. Feb/Mar 1997, vol.35 no.2.
  • Giant Octopus – Mighty but Secretive Denizen of the Deep from the National Zoo in Washington D.C.
  • Living Fossils Have Long- And Short-term Memory Despite Lacking Brain Structures Of Modern Cephalopods
  • Cephalopod Brains: An Overview of Current Knowledge to Facilitate Comparison With Vertebrates, Shigeno et. al at National Center for Biotechnology Information
  • M.J. Wells (1962). Brain and Behaviour in Cephalopods. Heinemann.
  • Roger T. Hanlon & John B. Messenger (1996). Cephalopod Behaviour. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-42083-9.
  • Peter Godfrey-Smith (2016). Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
  • Marion Nixon and John Z. Young (2003). The Brains and Lives of Cephalopods. Oxford University Press.
  • Binyamin Hochner; Tal Shomrat; Graziano Fiorito (June 1, 2006). "The Octopus: A Model for a Comparative Analysis of the Evolution of Learning and Memory Mechanisms". Biol. Bull. 210 (3): 308–817. doi:10.2307/4134567. JSTOR 4134567. PMID 16801504. S2CID 15274048.
  • Octopuses are Smart Suckers!? By Dr. Jennifer Mather, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge and Roland C. Anderson, The Seattle Aquarium
  • Through the Eye of an Octopus, by Eric Scigliano, Discover Magazine, October 1, 2003.
  • The Diversity and Evolution of Invertebrate Nervous Systems Set Institute. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  • The Mind of an Octopus Scientific American, January 1 2017.

References

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  1. ^ Humphreys, Lloyd G. (1979-04-01). "The construct of general intelligence". Intelligence. 3 (2): 105–120. doi:10.1016/0160-2896(79)90009-6. ISSN 0160-2896.
  2. ^ "Cephalopod intelligence" in The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight.
  3. ^ Robyn Crook & Jennifer Basil (2008). "A biphasic memory curve in the chambered nautilus, Nautilus pompilius L. (Cephalopoda: Nautiloidea)" (PDF). The Journal of Experimental Biology. 211 (12): 1992–1998. doi:10.1242/jeb.018531. PMID 18515730. S2CID 6305526.
  4. ^ "Alien intelligence: the extraordinary minds of octopuses and other cephalopods". NYT. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  5. ^ Tricarico, E.; Amodio, P.; Ponte, G.; Fiorito, G. (2014). "Cognition and recognition in the cephalopod mollusc Octopus vulgaris: coordinating interaction with environment and conspecifics". In Witzany, G. (ed.). Biocommunication of Animals. Springer. pp. 337–349. ISBN 978-94-007-7413-1.
  6. ^ Nixon, Marion; Young, J. Z. (2003). The Brains and Lives of Cephalopods. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-852761-9.
  7. ^ Budelmann, B. U. (1995). "The cephalopod nervous system: What evolution has made of the molluscan design". In Breidbach, O.; Kutsch, W. (eds.). The nervous systems of invertebrates: An evolutionary and comparative approach. ISBN 978-3-7643-5076-5.
  8. ^ Tasaki, I.; Takenaka, T. (1963). "Resting and action potential of squid giant axons intracellularly perfused with sodium-rich solutions" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 50 (4): 619–626. Bibcode:1963PNAS...50..619T. doi:10.1073/pnas.50.4.619. PMC 221236. PMID 14077488.
  9. ^ Villanueva, Roger; Perricone, Valentina; Fiorito, Graziano (2017-08-17). "Cephalopods as Predators: A Short Journey among Behavioral Flexibilities, Adaptions, and Feeding Habits". Frontiers in Physiology. 8: 598. doi:10.3389/fphys.2017.00598. ISSN 1664-042X. PMC 5563153. PMID 28861006.
  10. ^ Cousteau, Jacques Yves (1978). Octopus and Squid: The Soft Intelligence
  11. ^ "Giant Octopus – Mighty but Secretive Denizen of the Deep". Smithsonian National Zoological Park. 2 January 2008. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  12. ^ Wood, J. B; Anderson, R. C (2004). "Interspecific Evaluation of Octopus Escape Behavior" (PDF). Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. 7 (2): 95–106. doi:10.1207/s15327604jaws0702_2. PMID 15234886. S2CID 16639444. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  13. ^ Lee, Henry (1875). "V: The octopus out of water". Aquarium Notes – The Octopus; or, the "devil-fish" of fiction and of fact. London: Chapman and Hall. pp. 38–39. OCLC 1544491. Retrieved 11 September 2015. The marauding rascal had occasionally issued from the water in his tank, and clambered up the rocks, and over the wall into the next one; there he had helped himself to a young lump-fish, and, having devoured it, returned demurely to his own quarters by the same route, with well-filled stomach and contented mind.
  14. ^ Roy, Eleanor Ainge (14 April 2016). "The great escape: Inky the octopus legs it to freedom from aquarium". The Guardian (Australia).
  15. ^ a b Brown, C; Garwood, M. P.; Williamson, J. E. (2012). "It pays to cheat: Tactical deception in a cephalopod social signalling system". Biology Letters. 8 (5): 729–32. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2012.0435. PMC 3440998. PMID 22764112.
  16. ^ Cloney, R.A.; Florey, E. (1968). "Ultrastructure of cephalopod chromatophore organs". Z Zellforsch Mikrosk Anat. 89 (2): 250–280. doi:10.1007/BF00347297. PMID 5700268. S2CID 26566732.
  17. ^ "Sepioteuthis sepioidea, Caribbean Reef squid". The Cephalopod Page. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
  18. ^ Byrne, R.A., U. Griebel, J.B. Wood & J.A. Mather 2003. "Squids say it with skin: a graphic model for skin displays in Caribbean Reef Squid" (PDF).[permanent dead link‍] (3.86 MB) Berliner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen 3: 29–35.
  19. ^ Behold the Humboldt squid. Tim Zimmermann, Outside Magazine, July 2006.
  20. ^ Packard, A. (1972). "Cephalopods and fish: the limits of convergence". Biological Reviews. 47 (2): 241–307. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.1972.tb00975.x.
  21. ^ Fiorito, Graziano; Scotto, Pietro (24 April 1992). "Observational Learning in Octopus vulgaris". Science. 256 (5056): 545–547. doi:10.1126/science.256.5056.545. PMID 17787951. S2CID 29444311. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  22. ^ "Octopus intelligence: Jar opening". BBC News. 25 February 2003. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  23. ^ Hamilton, Garry (7 June 1997). "What is this octopus thinking?". New Scientist. No. 2085. pp. 30–35. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  24. ^ Is the octopus really the invertebrate intellect of the sea? by Doug Stewart. In: National Wildlife. Feb/Mar 1997, vol.35 no.2
  25. ^ Stewart, Doug (1997). "Armed but not dangerous: Is the octopus really the invertebrate intellect of the sea". National Wildlife. 35 (2).
  26. ^ Mather, J. A.; Anderson, R. C. (1998). Wood, J. B. (ed.). "What behavior can we expect of octopuses?". The Cephalopod Page.
  27. ^ Finn, J. K.; Tregenza, T.; Tregenza, N. (2009). "Defensive tool use in a coconut-carrying octopus". Current Biology. 19 (23): R1069–R1070. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.10.052. PMID 20064403. S2CID 26835945.
  28. ^ Morelle, Rebecca (2009-12-14). "Octopus snatches coconut and runs". BBC News. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
  29. ^ "Coconut shelter: evidence of tool use by octopuses | EduTube Educational Videos". Edutube.org. 2009-12-14. Archived from the original on 2013-10-24. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
  30. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlh0cS2tf24
  31. ^ "Simple tool use in owls and cephalopods". Map Of Life. 2010. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
  32. ^ Oinuma, C., (2008). "Octopus mercatoris response behavior to novel objects in a laboratory setting: Evidence of play and tool use behavior?" In Octopus Tool Use and Play Behavior[1]
  33. ^ Jones, E.C. (1963). "Tremoctopus violaceus uses Physalia tentacles as weapons". Science. 139 (3556): 764–766. doi:10.1126/science.139.3556.764. PMID 17829125. S2CID 40186769.
  34. ^ Zullo, L; Sumbre, G; Agnisola, C; Flash, T; Hochner, B. (2009). "Nonsomatotopic organization of the higher motor centers in octopus". Curr Biol. 19 (19): 1632–6. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.07.067. PMID 19765993.
  35. ^ "Otto the Octopus wreaks havoc"
  36. ^ "The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (Amendment) Order 1993". The National Archives. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  37. ^ "DIRECTIVE 2010/63/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL". Article 1, 3(b): Official Journal of the European Union. Retrieved 18 February 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
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