Ionopus

Pointed by Denyse as usual, this is the first EKG of an octopus.

The researchers are trying to figure out how the eight arm-brains and one center-brain of an octopus communicate. Each arm-brain can operate independently, talking to the other arms without involving the center-brain.

This isn’t entirely alien; our kinesthetic sensors in arms and legs can talk to other limbs via the spine without bothering the center-brain. But our arms and legs don’t have their own complete brains.

The electrodes were implanted in two sections of the center-brain. A brief movie shows the waveforms from the two sensors along with a visual picture of what the octopus was doing at that moment. Most of the visible activity is just rhythmic breathing. At one point one arm flicks out.

The waveform shows a variety of patterns fading in and out. For a few seconds the breathing is dominant, then it goes away.

Quick impression: The waves don’t look like direct pickups from hard-wired neurons or ganglia. A neuron’s output is digital, though the internal functioning is analog. These waves are purely analog. They remind me of a shortwave receiver tuning across the band, picking up various broadcasts as the ionosphere brings in skip from different regions. You hear BBC for a few seconds, then Havana, then some morse, then a teletype.

Speculation: An octopus is a community, not an organism, and the members of the community talk via tuned waves, not hard-wired axons. The community concept is familiar in jellyfish. Some sea slugs eat jellyfish and install the nematocyst stingers in their own skin, so mollusks are known to incorporate coelenterate parts and perhaps genes. Why not incorporate the entire CONCEPT along with the pieces? Genes are purposes.