Mechanism: secrets of morphology

The relationship between an octopus's physiology and its complex cognitive abilities has not been completely mapped out to this date. However, some underlying physiological factors, such as the lobe system and the organization of neural circuitry involved in learning and memory in the octopus brain have been studied (Wells, 1978; Young, 1991; Hanlon & Messenger, 1996; Yamazaki et al, 2002; Hochner et al, 2006). Thus, it has been hypothesized that these internal neurological system interact with external stimuli like competition with octopi conspecifics and other marine organisms to produce the observed cognitive abilities in octopi.

Problem Solving

The vertical lobe (VL) in the octopus brain may be essential to long term memory and observational learning. Hochner et al (2006) proved the VL to be an underlying mechanism by doing what many biologists do when they want to understand the function of a behavior - he cut it off! By removing the VL in O. vulgaris, he found that basic motor functions were not hindered, while the individual's abilitiy to learn new skills, problem solve, and perform tasks, learnt prior to the experiment were greatly reduced. For example, an octopus with an obliterated VL was shown to continuously attack crabs despite paired electric shock, indicating that it was no longer of learning paired relationship or retaining memory of shock. This experimental evidence highlights the importance of specific brain regions in producing certain cognitive abilities (Hocher et al, 2006).

VL