![]() ![]() The researchers traced the nerve cords with a powerful microscope and found that one type-the cords closest to the suckers-not only ran the length of an arm but also extended down another arm two arms away. ![]() In most past research, “other parts of the arm nervous system were really well described, but those are just left a mystery,” Hale says. They examined the octopuses' intramuscular nerve cords: key pieces of invertebrate anatomy that contain multiple types of neurons and contribute to whole-arm movement. The researchers investigated the anatomy of young Octopus bimaculoides, which are the size of “a big Tic Tac,” says study lead author Adam Kuuspalu, also at Chicago. In a study in Current Biology, she and her colleagues reveal the strange connections that may facilitate these supple limbs' decentralized coordination. “Their arms are so mobile they're soft, and they can bend and twist and do all sorts of things,” says Melina Hale, a biologist at the University of Chicago. Each arm gathers sensory information to drive its own movements-and even those of other arms-without consulting major brain regions. Octopuses' sucker-covered arms can act as if they contain partly independent mini brains. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |