`` Slicing the brain of the squid by MRI '' experiment reveals the secret of squid intelligence comparable to dogs


by

Jin Kemoole

A scan of the squid's brain with the latest technology has uncovered as many as 145 neural pathways. This is unlocking the secrets of squid's intelligence, which is said to have high mimicry abilities, developed vision, and a neuron count comparable to dogs.

Toward an MRI-Based Mesoscale Connectome of the Squid Brain-ScienceDirect
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004219305620

Brain map reveals camouflage tactic of squid-Queensland Brain Institute-University of Queensland
https://qbi.uq.edu.au/article/2020/01/brain-map-reveals-camouflage-tactic-squid

Squid Brain Complexity May Approach That Of Dogs, Study Finds | IFLScience
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/squid-brain-complexity-may-approach-that-of-dogs-study-finds/

'Some cephalopods, such as octopuses and squids, have over 500 million neurons (neurons) in the brain, which means that 20,000 common mollusks and 200 million rats That's far better than 530 million dogs, 'says Wen-Sung Chung, who studies brain science at the University of Queensland.

Despite the fact that squid is known to have high intelligence, Chung noticed that there was no unprecedented investigation of squid brain by nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine brain structure so far. the research group, large squid examines the five cups of the brain in diffusion MRI (dMRI), has created a brain map.



The result is as follows. The figure shows, from the left, a 3D graphic of the squid biological sample used for the experiment, the extracted eyes and brain, and the squid brain using MRI data.



By analyzing the MRI data, the research group succeeded in identifying 280 known neural pathways and 145 previously undiscovered neural pathways. Over 60% of the newly discovered neural pathways were associated with the visual and motor systems.

From this finding, Chung said, `` The squid's eyes support the `` ecology centered on vision '' like many vertebrates, and not only eyes but also tissues and functions such as optic nerves are similar to vertebrates. This demonstrates that different groups of organisms, cephalopods and vertebrates, have acquired brains with structures similar to the end of their individual evolution, supporting the theory of

convergent evolution . '

Also, it is known that some squids do not have color vision, but communicate with body patterns and perform advanced mimicry that makes the body different patterns in the upper half and lower half . This trick is possible because the newly discovered brain structure, including the neural pathways, forms a network to understand 'what happens if you look at yourself from above, and what happens if you look at it from below' It turned out that it was.


by Diliff

'I hope our research will help us understand why the fascinating squid has acquired diverse behaviors and communication skills,' said Chung. The research group of Chung and his colleagues plans to proceed with a project to investigate 'how various types of cephalopods have evolved various parts of the brain'.

in Science,   Creature, Posted by log1l_ks