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What Octopus and Human Brains Have in Common - Neuroscience News

What Octopus and Human Brains Have in Common - Neuroscience News

What Octopus and Human Brains Have in Common - Neuroscience News
Nov 27, 2022 2 mins, 4 secs

Neuroscience can involve research from many branches of science including those involving neurology, brain science, neurobiology, psychology, computer science, artificial intelligence, statistics, prosthetics, neuroimaging, engineering, medicine, physics, mathematics, pharmacology, electrophysiology, biology, robotics and technology.

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Neurotechnology research articles deal with robotics, AI, deep learning, machine learning, Brain Computer Interfaces, neuroprosthetics, neural implants and more.

Findings suggest miRNA plays a significant role in the development of complex brains.

Cephalopods like octopuses, squids and cuttlefish are highly intelligent animals with complex nervous systems.

“So, this is what connects us to the octopus!” says Professor Nikolaus Rajewsky, Scientific Director of the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology of the Max Delbrück Center (MDC-BIMSB), head of the Systems Biology of Gene Regulatory Elements Lab, and the paper’s last author.

He explains that this finding probably means miRNAs play a fundamental role in the development of complex brains.

“This got me thinking that octopuses may not only be good at editing, but could have other RNA tricks up their sleeve too,” recalls Rajewsky.

And so he began a collaboration with the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn marine research station in Naples, which sent him samples of 18 different tissue types from dead octopuses.

He says that looking at an octopus is very different to looking at a fish: “It’s not very scientific, but their eyes do exude a sense of intelligence.” Octopuses have similarly complex “camera” eyes to humans.

The reason why octopuses are alone in having developed such complex brain functions could lie in the fact that they use their arms very purposefully – as tools to open shells, for instance.

Although the community is currently small, Rajewsky says that interest in octopuses is growing worldwide, including among behavioral researchers.

At least, that’s what my colleagues tell me,” says Rajewsky.

“Since octopuses aren’t typical model organisms, our molecular-biological tools were very limited,” says Zolotarov.

“MicroRNAs are deeply linked to the emergence of the complex octopus brain” by Nikolaus Rajewsky et al.

MicroRNAs are deeply linked to the emergence of the complex octopus brain

Soft-bodied cephalopods such as octopuses are exceptionally intelligent invertebrates with a highly complex nervous system that evolved independently from vertebrates

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