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This is what happened when scientists gave ecstasy to octopuses.
The drug ecstasy, also called MDMA or molly, can make humans empathetic and loving, but what happens when an octopus ingests the drug?
Researchers from John Hopkins University wanted to know and recently conducted a study, published in the journal Current Biology, to find out. They wanted to explore the connection between the social behaviors of the sea creature and people.
They looked specifically at octopus genes and found that animals and humans have almost identical genomic codes, especially for the protein that carries serotonin, which regulates moods and social behavior. Ecstasy usually moves directly to serotonin to release more of it into the brain.
To test the effects of molly on octopuses, scientists placed the creatures of the size of a hand in a beaker filled with seawater and MDMA, which was absorbed by their gills.
While octopuses normally avoid each other, they are more social when they take drugs. In fact, "they tended to squeeze the cage in their arms and put their mouths in the cage," said the main author, Gül Dölen, in a statement. "It sounds a lot like the reaction of humans to MDMA; they touch each other frequently.
They noted that octopuses are separated from humans by more than 500 million years of evolution and have brains more similar to those of snails. However, with MDMA, they were able to show some of the same actions of people.
The team also explained that the brain circuits that guide social behaviors in octopus can be removed by natural or other circumstances.
"Octopuses will suspend their antisocial behavior for mating, for example. Then, when they have finished their mating, they come into aggressive and asocial mode, "said Dölen.
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