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What happens when you give an MDMA octopus? This sounds like a question that could cross the contemptuous spirit of someone who had done silly things in psychedelics. But now the subject has become the center of an unlikely scientific experiment to discover the ancient origins of social behavior.
By showing that the normally antisocial marine creature has become friendly and tactile after receiving MDMA, also known as ecstasy, scientists believe they have linked human social behavior to more than 500 million people. Years of evolution. .
Dr. Gül Dölen, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and principal investigator of the study, said, "People say, 'Do you have pictures of octopuses with glow sticks?' We really do not have our goal. MDMA is an excellent tool for determining whether an octopus can become social or not.
The answer was a definitive yes: the normal hostility of creatures to each other has vanished and they have become delicate. The findings suggest that serotonin, a brain chemical, that floods the brain after a dose of MDMA, has been a trigger for social behavior since the beginning of the evolutionary history.
Octopuses are notoriously intelligent. They can learn to navigate labyrinths and unscrew jars to get food. Aquarium staff reported catching octopus plundering nearby tanks for food at night.
Under normal circumstances, however, octopuses are deeply antisocial and treat each other aggressively – sometimes to the point of eating each other. "Even when mating, the man will leave his sperm and leave as quickly as possible, because if he stays in the area, he will attack," Dölen said.
The study, published in the journal Current Biology, has studied the behavior of octopuses in a connected three-chambered tank: a void, a plastic figurine and a third with another octopus in a cage.
Four octopuses were placed in a diluted MDMA beaker, which they absorbed through their gills. While they were taking the drug, all four spent much more time in the room with the octopus caged than without the drugs.
The nature of their interactions was also very different. Without MDMA, they approached the cage with a single stretched tentacle. The medicine made them relaxed and friendly. "They are essentially hugging the [cage] and exposing parts of their bodies that they normally do not expose to another octopus, "said Dölen.
There seems to be other parallels to the euphoria experienced by people taking MDMA. "Some were playing very loudly, doing aquatic acrobatics or spending time petting airstone. [aquarium bubbler]"Said Dölen.
Others stretched out all eight arms and just floated, doing what the researchers called "water ballet".
The results are surprising because the octopus brain is radically different from ours: the central brain surrounds the throat and the majority of neurons, which seem to work semi-independently, are distributed in the arms. Until now, much research on the biology underlying social behavior has focused on sophisticated brain circuits. Recent work suggests a more important role for basic brain chemistry, and in particular chemical brain serotonin.
Professor David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London, said the findings provided evidence of emotion and empathy in a wide range of species. "It just proves that it's not a particular human trait, it's not even a mammalian trait, it's a hallmark of the brain," he said. "It also shows that serotonin has an extremely important role in mediating social interactions across species."
Dölen said the results could open opportunities to accurately study the impact of psychiatric drug therapies on a wide range of animals far removed from humans, adding that the study of psychedelic drugs and other recreational drugs is no longer considered. as a "risky subject".
"Serious scientists are coming in and saying that we can learn a lot from these tools," she said. "I hope this is one of the studies that pushes us in this direction and it's not one of those strange things that only ravers know about."
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