ArticleJournal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology2024
Evidence for tactile 3D shape discrimination by octopus.
Article in Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Multiple Longitudinal Tracts in the Cephalopod Arm Sensorimotor System.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2026Article
- Multiple longitudinal tracts in the cephalopod arm sensorimotor system.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Octopus arm flexibility facilitates complex behaviors in diverse natural environments.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- How octopuses use and recruit additional arms to find and manipulate visually hidden items.Biology open · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Octopuses integrate visual, chemical and tactile sensory information while foraging and feeding in complex marine habitats. The respective roles of these modes are of interest ecologically, neurobiologically, and for development of engineered soft robotic arms. While vision guides their foraging path, benthic octopuses primarily search "blindly" with their arms to find visually hidden prey amidst rocks, crevices and coral heads. Each octopus arm is lined with hundreds of suckers that possess a combination of chemo- and mechanoreceptors to distinguish prey. Contact chemoreception has been demonstrated in lab tests, but mechanotactile sensing is less well characterized. We designed a non-invasive live animal behavioral assay that isolated mechanosensory capabilities of Octopus bimaculoides arms and suckers to discriminate among five resin 3D-printed prey and non-prey shapes (all with identical chemical signatures). Each shape was introduced inside a rock dome and was only accessible to the octopus' arms. Octopuses' responses were variable. Young octopuses discriminated the crab prey shape from the control, whereas older octopuses did not. These experiments suggest that mechanotactile sensing of 3D shapes may aid in prey discrimination; however, (i) chemo-tactile information may be prioritized over mechanotactile information in prey discrimination, and (ii) mechanosensory capability may decline with age.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.