Octopus arms may literally have a mind of their own. Each limb contains its own version of a spinal cord, called an axial nerve cord, and these cords

Octopus arm anatomy, molecular makeup revealed in new maps

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2024-09-29 06:30:04

Octopus arms may literally have a mind of their own. Each limb contains its own version of a spinal cord, called an axial nerve cord, and these cords collectively harbor most of the animal’s neurons. In some instances, the arms can process sensory information and initiate motor actions on their own, without input from the brain.

But a dearth of molecular tools has blocked deeper insights into the neural circuity of octopus arms. “You need to know not just what types of cells are there but where to find them,” says Robyn Crook, associate professor of biology at San Francisco State University.

To close this gap, Crook and her team built a 3D map of the location and molecular identities of neurons in the axial nerve cord, plus a map of the structure of blood vessels, muscles and other tissues in the arm, published today as a pair of papers in Current Biology. Crook says she hopes the characterizations will “start to facilitate more functional studies.”

The datasets are “going to be very, very valuable down the road,” says Rhanor Gillette, professor emeritus of molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who was not involved in the work. Crook’s team, he adds, has created “a very nice reference for future electrophysiological and histological investigations.”