How Octopuses Taste Things Just By Touching Them
- 3 years ago
Among their many unique talents, octopuses can taste objects with a mere touch of a suction-cup-covered tentacle.
According to Gizmodo, a team of researchers has finally gotten to the bottom of how these cephalopods perform this mysterious feat.
They discovered a distinct population of cells located on the tips of the suckers, which they named 'chemotactile receptors.'
A second type of cell within the suction cups converts mechanical stimulation into signals the brain can understand as touch, among other senses.
The nervous system of an octopus is distributed, in which the arms contain two-thirds of its total neurons and can function independently from the brain.
That's why a severed octopus arm can still try to reach out and grab things. Yikes!
According to Gizmodo, a team of researchers has finally gotten to the bottom of how these cephalopods perform this mysterious feat.
They discovered a distinct population of cells located on the tips of the suckers, which they named 'chemotactile receptors.'
A second type of cell within the suction cups converts mechanical stimulation into signals the brain can understand as touch, among other senses.
The nervous system of an octopus is distributed, in which the arms contain two-thirds of its total neurons and can function independently from the brain.
That's why a severed octopus arm can still try to reach out and grab things. Yikes!