[ad_1]
- Octopuses, like humans, have genes that seem to code for serotonin transporters.
- Scientists gave MDMA to octopus to see if these genes translate into a binding site for serotonin, which regulates emotions and behavior in humans
- Octopuses, which are generally asocial creatures, seem to become more sympathetic on MDMA, suggesting that humans have more in common with strange invertebrates than previously thought.
It may seem that octopuses and humans have nothing in common.
After all, octopuses separated from humans on the evolutionary family tree nearly 500 million years ago, and with their eight arms, their three hearts and their pointed beaks, resemble little primates. The venomous cephalopods have extraordinarily large brains whose neurons, unlike humans, are distributed mainly in their arms, constituting a unique complex nervous system. Octopuses also possess strange and extraterrestrial abilities: they can taste what they're touching, paralyze their prey with saliva, change skin color to use camouflage and blind enemies with jets. ;ink.
But the common point between octopus and humans is intelligence.
Thinking to be among the first intelligent creatures on the planet, it was observed that octopuses were playing, navigating in labyrinths and even collecting coconut shells to build a shelter, an example of the use of tools. They also display an incredible ability to escape human captivity. In 2016, a young octopus from New Zealand's National Aquarium was able to sneak into a small hole at the top of its tank, fall to the ground, descend a long escape hose and dive into the water. ocean to never be seen by an aquarium. the staff again
A crucial difference
Despite this cognitive sophistication, many scientists have long believed that octopuses and other invertebrates do not have the neural requirements to feel emotions or social behaviors as mammals do.
However, a new study published in the journal Current Biology challenges this long-standing presumption by showing that the administration of MDMA to octopus seems to elicit social behavior in them, suggesting that the architecture of the experience of such phenomena goes back further in the 39, history of evolution that we previously thought.
For the study, the researchers developed an experiment in which they placed a two-point California octopus in a tank containing three pieces separated by two walls with slots. The middle piece was empty, but the two pieces on each side contained either a "new toy object" (a Stormtrooper figurine) in a cage or another octopus in a cage, and the uncracked octopus was free to spend time in the room it rained.
The five octopuses who completed this part of the experiment spent much more time in the room with the toy, although the male and female octopuses tentatively explore the other room when a female was in the room. the cage.
The researchers then conducted this experiment again, but this time each octopus was bathed in water containing MDMA before entering the three-zone reservoir. Contrary to what happened before, octopuses on MDMA seemed much more interested in the room where the octopus was, sometimes touching it in an exploratory way, instead of the room containing the lifeless toy.
(Eric Edsinger, Gül Dölen)
The three-zone tank used in the experiment. Cage with toy on the left, octopus cage on the right.
An eight-armed hug
Gül Dölen, Ph.D., assistant professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University and co-author of the study, said: reverse it was like watching an "eight-armed hug".
"They were very cowardly," said Dölen. "They just kissed with multiple arms."
It is impossible to know what octopus lived, but Dölen offered his own personal observation (as anecdotal, unscientific reverseOctopuses have acted like humans when they are ecstatic.
In high doses, the octopuses exhaled intensely and became white. But at lower doses, the octopuses seemed to display a more typical behavior of someone on a psychedelic: there was a lot of interest in minor sounds and smells, another spent time jumping in the air. bowl and an octopus, "swim with his arms extended.
In humans, MDMA acts primarily on the brain by stimulating the activity of the neurotransmitter serotonin. California's two-point octopus also has a serotonin transporter to which MDMA can bind. However, researchers did not know if this ancient feature was active in octopus.
"We had to check the genome to make sure that the genes encoding the serotonin transporter, the protein to which MDMA binds, remained a binding site in the octopus, even though the evolution time was over." said Dölen. reverse.
"We did a phylogenetic tree mapping and found that even though their entire serotonin transporter gene was only 50 to 60% similar to humans, the gene was still conserved, so MDMA would have a place in the brain it could encode sociality as in the human brain. "
(FRED TANNEAU / AFP / Getty Images)
Although they are about as foreign to human life, Dölen's study shows that octopuses share some important characteristics with humans.
Familiar behavior in strange brain structures
The idea that the behavior of the octopus could be regulated by serotonin, which largely controls human emotions, is particularly interesting because of the difference between creatures and humans.
"It was such an incredible article, with a completely unexpected and almost unbelievable result," said Judit Pungor, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oregon who did not participate in the study, during an interview with Gizmodo. "To think that an animal whose brain has evolved completely independently of ours reacts behaviorally in the same way as we do with a drug is absolutely incredible."
To be sure, it's not very clear why the octopuses have "opened" while they were on MDMA. In addition to the fact that the study is limited by the size of the sample, it is possible that the octopus is more likely to touch the other octopus because the drug makes them more interested in touching themselves in general, not necessarily to touch others.
However, Dölen said the results suggest that molecular and cellular genetic information, rather than anatomical data, is more important in deciding whether animals develop social behavior.
"Octopuses do not have the same parts of the brain that we think are important for social behavior, a region called the nucleus accumbens," Dölen said. reverse. "We argue that brain regions do not matter – what matters is that they own the molecules, neurotransmitters, and certain neuron configurations." They have the carrier of serotonin and that's enough. "
Source link
