Octopus Intelligence

Question 1

Octopus Brain

Answer 1

More well-developed ganglia

Divided into lobes

Question 2

Octopus Features

Answer 2

Undergo classical conditioning

Well developed eye with cornea and lens

Question 3

Octopus vulgaris: Experiment

Answer 3

Able to learn
Experimenting with 2 balls: red and blue
Associate a negative stimulus with a certain color ball
Took 17 tries to learn/train
Observing octopi figured it out without training
After 4 tries of watching
Began to learn faster
Redid experiment 5 days later and octopus had retained knowledge of stimulus

Question 4

Aplysia californica: Memory

Answer 4

Shell-less gastropod
Shocked aplysia multiple times to see reaction
Bigger shock next got bigger reaction
Aplysia remembered shock and gave reaction
Looked at short-term vs. long-term

Question 5

Aplysia: axon size

Answer 5

Aplysia had much bigger axons

Allowed scientists to see synapses which is where memories are

Question 6

Short-term Memory

Answer 6

Lead by protein phosphorylation and signaling and turns off fairly quickly
Increase in signaling and cAMP

Question 7

Long-term Memory

Answer 7

Info goes to nucleus which produced new proteins that changed the synapse structure to be larger

Question 8

Nerve Impulse

Answer 8

Discovered action potential
Threshold potential will trigger an action potential or nerve impulse
Action potential is an all-or-none response

Question 9

Squid Giant Axon

Answer 9

1 mm in diameter = increase speed of nerve impulse

Question 10

Hodgkin-Huxley Model

Answer 10

Looks at currents and ions

Discovered importance of sodium and potassium and their transfer back and forth