Cephalopod Intelligence

Cephalopod Intelligence

most intelligent invertebrates

Videos

• highly developed balance, touch, and chemical senses.
• cephalopods have a pair of eyes that have a single camera type chamber. They only have photoreceptors in the retina (no blind spot)

• change color to blend with their background
• eight arms, two tentacles
• largest brain-to-body size ratios of all invertebrates
• cuttlebone, which is the internal shell unique to the cuttlefish that helps with buoyancy

1:37-2:45

4:18-5:45

squid

• The ancestral shell has been lost, with only an internal gladius, or pen, remaining. The pen is a feather-shaped internal structure that supports the squid's mantle and serves as a site for muscle attachment

cuttlefish

• At the front of the mantle cavity lies the siphon, which the squid uses for locomotion via precise jet propulsion

• The giant axon innervates the mantle and controls part of the jet propulsion system.

• Groups of Humboldt squid hunt cooperatively, using active communication

octopus

• octopuses have a closed circulatory system
• solitary outside of mating
• Has a radula on the inside of its hard beak
• blood contains the copper-rich protein hemocyanin for transporting oxygen
• The hemocyanin is dissolved in the plasma instead of being carried within red blood cells, and gives the blood a bluish color
• Octopuses are highly intelligent, possibly more so than any other order of invertebrates

Behavior

References

• an octopus named Otto was known to juggle his fellow tankmates around, as well as throw rocks and smash the aquarium glass

• show play behavior and have individual personalities

• a prey puzzle, used with subjects, is a crab or other food inside a screw-top jar that the octopus has to unscrew in order to get the food inside

Play

• Smart Octopus? (n.d.). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/OctopusSmarts.php
• The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology. (n.d.). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=btS8XyqTY6MC&oi=fnd&pg=PA118&dq=intelligence%2Bin%2Bcephalopods&ots=BWuOU-nMGX&sig=RiHm848uxFpzza0wd2EvWQJgGXA#v=onepage&q=intelligence%20in%20cephalopods&f=false
• Cosmology.com, J. O. (n.d.). Journal of Cosmology. Retrieved April 09, 2017, from http://journalofcosmology.com/Consciousness113.html
• Cephalopod intelligence. (2017, March 23). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_intelligence
• Cuttlefish. (2017, April 09). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuttlefish
• Squid. (2017, April 02). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squid
• Octopus. (2017, April 10). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus
• Cuthill, I. C. (2007, December 18). Animal Behaviour: Strategic Signalling by Cephalopods. Retrieved April 09, 2017, from http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(07)02149-5

• Some cephalopods are capable of rapid changes in skin colour and pattern through nervous control of chromatophores (are pigment-containing and light-reflecting cells, or groups of cells)
• skin display system to foil predators
• use colour, patterns, and flashing to communicate with each other in various courtship rituals
• can send one message using colour patterns to a squid on their right, while they send another message to a squid on their left

Learning

Camouflage

• Classical conditioning of cephalopods has been reported
• Learn simple mazes
• demanding environment in which they live, that they must make 'decisions' to find prey and avoid predation
• the existence of impressive spatial learning capacity (calculating and using information about their position in the environment)
• Watching others and repetition

Processes

Chemotactile Reception

• Receptors in the suckers along arms
• May use chemical cues to locate another cephalopods
• Discriminate between smooth and rough surfaces
• Nonvisual use of spatial information such as pulling, drilling, and chipping

• Sensory information about motion, equilibrium, and spatial orientation
• composed of two receptor systems, one detects linear accelerations (gravity), the second detects angular acceleration (helicopter blade)
• Maintenance of position and balance in the open ocean
• Counter shade coloring when pivoted 180 degrees
• Lateral-line system is a recessed grove along side of body with hair cells that extend into water (in vertebrates hearing)

Vestibular System

Visual System

• Single camera-type chamber, focusing lenses, variable sized pupils, and large retina
• No color vision
• Only have photoreceptors in retina, meaning they have no blind spot and no interference of the entry of light to photoreceptors
• Discriminate between different patterns and brightness
• Mimic behavior they watch