[HN Gopher] What octopus and human brains have in common
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       What octopus and human brains have in common
        
       Author : yamrzou
       Score  : 63 points
       Date   : 2022-11-27 02:07 UTC (20 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.mdc-berlin.de)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.mdc-berlin.de)
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | Octopuses are interesting because they are so _different_ from
       | the mammals, yet are somewhat intelligent. The visual system is
       | good but very different. They seem to have a more distributed
       | system than mammals, with more done out in the limbs. More like
       | the way automated factories are built. There 's more than one way
       | to do it.
        
         | dhosek wrote:
         | What I find interesting is that as far as we know, they can't
         | _see_ color and yet they can match their pigmentation to a
         | colored background.
         | 
         | I've always wondered if they can blend in against an artificial
         | background, say a checkerboard pattern.
        
           | jazzyjackson wrote:
           | cuttlefish ain't quite octopi, but do i have the video for
           | you:
           | 
           | https://youtu.be/pgDE2DOICuc
           | 
           | spoiler: right angles are not in the repertoire
        
       | neodypsis wrote:
       | So intelligent yet so short-lived.
        
         | yieldcrv wrote:
         | Their digestive tract fuses shut as sexual maturity
         | 
         | Its a darwinian failure (or success) because it cant be weeded
         | out by selective pressures since it happens after reproduction
        
           | jazzyjackson wrote:
           | > cant be weeded out by selective pressures since it happens
           | after reproduction
           | 
           | if there was a population that didn't starve after sex, they
           | might out-compete a population that did, say, by passing on
           | learned behavior to their offspring
        
           | rembicilious wrote:
           | Could an octopus reproduce a second time if their digestive
           | tract remained open? It seems like an octopus that could
           | breed multiple times would have a selection advantage in the
           | form of more offspring.
        
           | neodypsis wrote:
           | Can it be surgically re-opened? To see how much could they
           | really live?
        
         | bmitc wrote:
         | There have been experiments that remove the gland that produces
         | the hormone that kills off octopuses after copulation and
         | birth. The octopuses seemed to live on with no problem,
         | seemingly implying that the early death was indeed an
         | adaptation to make room for the newly born.
        
           | neodypsis wrote:
           | How much longer could they live?
        
       | dschuetz wrote:
       | Yes, what do they have in common indeed. I didn't quite catch
       | that from that article.
        
       | eganist wrote:
       | For those lost, the article is largely expanding on just a single
       | sentence:
       | 
       | > octopuses possess a massively expanded repertoire of microRNAs
       | (miRNAs) in their neural tissue - reflecting similar developments
       | that occurred in vertebrates.
       | 
       | Better reading:
       | https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add9938
        
         | ghostpepper wrote:
         | It seems like the crux of the discovery is the "expansion of
         | repertoire" of miRNA, and the control group they're comparing
         | to is vertebrates as a whole, and not specifically humans.
         | According to some quick scanning on wikipedia, the importance
         | of miRNA in neural tissues in mice has been shown by knocking
         | out those genes.
         | 
         | I wonder if the implication is that the massive complexity seen
         | in vertebrate neural tissue is dependent on the ability of RNA
         | to edit itself and somehow enable cognitive capabilities far
         | beyond those encoded in the un-edited DNA?
         | 
         | I'm just an enthusiastic layman so take all what I've written
         | with a pail of salt.
        
       | gsatic wrote:
       | Haven't heard of microRNA before...so this is just random RNA
       | floating around?
        
       | Pietbull wrote:
       | Somewhat related - if you haven't yet, do see the "My Octopus
       | Teacher" doccie on Netflix. Extraordinary creatures are these.
        
         | Maxburn wrote:
         | All right, this keeps coming up. I'll put it on the list.
        
         | wmwmwm wrote:
         | I can recommend "Other Minds" by Peter Godfrey-Smith for a
         | pretty in depth read about octopus intelligence. Fascinating
         | stuff!
        
         | TEP_Kim_Il_Sung wrote:
         | Alternate title "Assassination Classroom"
        
           | NotACop182 wrote:
           | That's funny
        
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