How octopus arms make decisions

Date:  June 25, 2019

Source:  American Geophysical Union

Researchers studying the behavior and neuroscience of octopuses have long suspected that the animals' arms may have minds of their own.

A new model being presented in Bellevue, Washington State, is the first attempt at a comprehensive representation of information flow between the octopus's suckers, arms and brain, based on previous research in octopus neuroscience and behavior, and new video observations conducted in the lab.

The new research supports previous findings that octopus' suckers can initiate action in response to information they acquire from their environment, coordinating with neighboring suckers along the arm. The arms then process sensory and motor information, and muster collective action in the peripheral nervous system, without waiting on commands from the brain.

The result is a bottom-up, or arm-up, decision mechanism rather than the brain-down mechanism typical of vertebrates, like humans, according to Dominic Sivitilli, a graduate student in behavioral neuroscience and astrobiology at the University of Washington in Seattle who will present the new research Wednesday at the 2019 Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon 2019).

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'Male' Octopus Hatches 10,000 Teensy Babies in Surprise Birth

By Brandon Specktor, Senior Writer | November 5, 2018 12:37pm ET

Sit back, clear your mind, and let this imagery sink in: "buckets and buckets and buckets full of tiny octopi."

That's what Devin Dumont — curator of the UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium in Savannah, Georgia — said he found when he showed up to work last Tuesday, according to an interview with local news site Savannah Morning News.

"I noticed this cloud of moving dots and I realized, 'Oh my God... There are babies. There are babies everywhere,'" Dumont told Savannah Morning News. "I immediately started scooping them out and putting them in buckets."

Octavius, the aquarium's sole octopus resident, had apparently given birth to a brood of tens of thousands of tiny, confetti-size babiesovernight. When Dumont found the brood swirling like a blizzard in Octavius' tank, he was surprised for a few reasons. [Photos: Ghostly Dumbo Octopus Dances In the Deep Sea]

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Why a Seal Smacked Kayaker in the Face with an Octopus

By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | September 27, 2018 06:37am ET

Talk about a slap in the face. A new video captures the moment that a seal or sea lion flung a dead octopus into the face of a kayaker in New Zealand.

The video was posted on Instagram by 22-year-old filmmaker Taiyo Masuda. It shows his friend and fellow GoPro camera content promoter Kyle "te Kiwi" Mulinder experiencing the unexpected octopus assault during an ocean kayak trip.

The bewhiskered marine mammal may have been sporting with the human interlopers, but it's also quite likely that the octopus slam was an attempt to tenderize the meat for consumption.

Sea lions and fur seals are known to hunt and eat octopuses, which are not easy prey to eat. In 2010, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game shared photos of a Steller sea lion wrestling a large octopus. Marine biologists in that case pointed out that the octopus was far from defenseless, armed with its sharp, parrot-like beak. Sea lions have also been known to use the smash-and-grab approach to killing: A 2017 National Geographic article on a rare cannibalistic Steller sea lion mentions a 1991 case in which a bull sea lion killed a pup by hitting it against a rock.

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Are Octopuses Smart?

By Sarah B. Puschmann, Staff Writer | August 18, 2017 11:44am ET

In 2014, one of Roy Caldwell's octopuses went missing.

Caldwell, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, had kept the reef octopuses (Abdopus aculeatus) he and his team collected on Lizard Island in Australia in separate, sealed tanks. Puzzled, he peered into the female octopus's tank and found spermatophores, the capsules that contain octopus sperm, floating in the water. He looked closer and found the male there, too, buried in the gravel.

The only way the male octopus could have made it into the female's tank, Caldwell said, is for the male to have wriggled through the pipe that fed water into both octopuses' tanks, an act some might deem proof of a calculated nighttime tryst.  

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Octopus inspired adhesive patch works under water

 June 15, 2017 by Bob Yirka report

 

A team of researchers at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea has developed a type of adhesive patch that works under a variety of conditions including underwater. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the team describes how they studied octopus suction cups to design a better patch for human applications. 

In their search to create a better adhesive patch, the researchers looked to suction cups used by octopuses to grip objects and prey. They mimicked the suction cups by creating polymer sheets with cup-like dimples with soft spheres in the middle of each. They then tested differently sized dimples and spheres and found that 50 micrometer dimples offered the best grip, which, as it turned out, was the one closest to that used by an octopus in its underwater world. To better understand how the suction cups worked, the researchers studied their own creations under a microscope and discovered the secret to the octopus grip is water getting trapped beneath the sphere near the back edges of the cup—it creates a vacuum chamber when pressure is released.

In testing the patches, the researchers found them able to attach and detach up to 1000 times without the need for replenishment—and without the need for adhesive materials. This, the team notes, makes them a much better option for skin patches as anyone who has used an adhesive patch can attest. Removing sticky patches can be painful, particularly if they have been used to cover a wound. The researchers report also that the patch could adhere to many surfaces, both flat and curved, including skin. And of course, it stuck just as well when the skin was wet. Perhaps most interesting was the fact that the vacuum also allowed the suction cup to work underwater.

The patches the group made were simple rectangular sheets of dimpled plastic with tiny spheres in the middle of each, anchored to the sheet. The patches adhered when pressure was applied. Of course, for the patch to be used in medical or industrial applications a means for releasing the pressure created by the vacuum must be found, perhaps one based on the way an octopus releases its grip.

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Bird-killing octopuses lurk in Narooma waters

Stan Gorton@stangorton
22 Feb 2017, 1:11 p.m.

The octopuses of Narooma are gaining a reputation as bird killers after another gruesome incident this week.

A large octopus was seen dragging a poor wood duck to its death at the Narooma Marina on Tuesday, shocking bystanders.

This follows our report last year of an octopus snagging and devouring a pigeon at the rockwall under the Narooma Bridge.

Witnessing the final stages of this latest watery drama was Les Waldock, who happens to be the president of the Narooma Sport and Game Fishing Club.

“Now you don't see this every day,” Mr Waldock said. “A duck, paddling around Narooma Marina, minding its own business, when an octopus takes to it.”

He said after a 10-minute struggle, the octopus finally drowned the duck dragging it under the water.

But not before the owners of boatshed attempted to save the still-living duck, engaging in a tug-of-war with the octopus.

They gave up trying to remove the struggling duck from the octopus’ tentacles, fearing they may have “pulled its head off”, he said.

When Mr Waldock arrived, he said the octopus had surfaced again, wrapping itself around a jetty pole with the now dead bird's head just above the waterline.

Why? because there was at least one massive bull ray circling the pole wanting to cash in on the feed but it was unable to get to the duck due to where the octopus had positioned itself.

“Nature at its best!” he said.

We are unsure if birds normally form part of the octopus diet, but one thing is for sure, if you have feathers make sure to keep an eye under the water.



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Hunting or Angry? Scientists Can't Agree on Odd Octopus Behavior

By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | February 2, 2017 11:30am ET

This story was updated Feb. 2 at 11:30 a.m. EST.

A wild octopus surprised an Australian diver this week by suddenly, and quite dramatically, inflating itself with water, ballooning up like a parachute. Later, when the diver posted a video of the interaction online, she wondered whether the octopus was trying to intimidate her with its grandiose size.

That's possible, marine biologists said, but they can't agree on what caused the curious behavior.

One idea is that the octopus was hunting for food, said Kathleen Sullivan Sealey, an associate professor of biology at the University of Miami, who doesn't know the diver but watched the video online.

In the video post, the diver noted how the octopus "blew itself up like a parachute multiple times," turning its body and eight legs into a giant net as the animal traversed the rocky and sponge-filled ocean floor off the coast of Melbourne, Australia.

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Pneumatic octopus is first soft, solo robot

By Jonathan Webb Science reporter, BBC News

25 August 2016

US engineers have built the first ever self-contained, completely soft robot - in the shape of a small octopus.

Made from silicone gels of varying stiffness, the "octobot" is powered by a chemical reaction that pushes gas through chambers in its rubbery legs.

Because of this design, the robot does not need batteries or wires - and contains no rigid components at all.

Instead, a sequence of limb movements is pre-programmed into a sort of circuit board built from tiny pipes.

These movements aren't good enough, yet, to send the octobot out for a stroll; instead it sits in one place and pumps alternating legs up and down in a very slow, eight-legged can-can.

But because that dance is powered purely by the robot's internal pneumatic system, the Harvard researchers - writing in the journal Nature - say their system marks a key step forward for soft robotics.

"Many of the previous embodiments required tethers to external controllers or power sources," said PhD student Ryan Truby from Harvard University.

"What we've tried to do is actually to replace these hardware components entirely and have a completely soft robotic system."

The hope is that one day, soft robots will wiggle their way into awkward surgical locations or squeeze under obstacles on search-and-rescue missions.

Real-world tasks like these, particularly if they involve human interaction, are challenging or even impossible for conventional, rigid robots - which are much more comfortable in the structured, repetitive environment of the factory floor.

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