Octopuses may look almost like alien animals, but their amazing ability to control each of their eight arms is impressive and intriguing to scientists.. It is known that such control is at least partly due to the segmentation of the nervous system that controls them, but scientists still did not understand how exactly this works. Now the mystery of the octopuses has been revealed, writes Science Alert.

In a new study, scientists from the University of Chicago have uncovered the strange way cephalopods navigate the world.. Scientists believe that their discovery could further inform future soft robot projects..

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According to co-author of the study, neuroscientist Clifton Ragsdale, if people can unravel the secret of the octopus nervous system that controls such dynamic movements, this could be a good clue on how to tune it.. Scientists believe that this amazing feature was specifically developed in soft-bodied cephalopods with suction cups to perform dynamic movements..

It's no secret that the octopus' nervous system is one of the most unusual on Earth.. Unlike other intelligent animals, it is highly distributed, with a significant portion of its 500 million neurons distributed across all eight limbs. In simple words, it is in the limbs of the cephalopod that most of the neurons are located, and not at all in its head.

Interestingly, the individual octopus limbs are essentially capable of making decisions independently of each other and are even able to respond to stimuli even after they have been severed.. Researchers have discovered that any one of hundreds of suckers can “sample” the chemistry of their environment and change their shape..

Neurons in the limbs of an octopus are concentrated along the axial nerve cord, which stretches in waves along its entire length, and nerve ganglia are concentrated around each sucker. Such a system seems complex and directional, so the team, led by neuroscientist Cassidy Olsen, wanted to study exactly how the octopus' nervous system functions.

During the study, scientists placed longitudinal sections of the arm of a California two-spotted octopus (Octopus bimaculoides) under a microscope and discovered something that had never been noticed before. Along the axial nerve cord, neuronal cells are packed into segments separated by spaces called septa, rich in connective tissue where nerves and veins emerge to connect with nearby muscles.

The scientists further traced these connections and found that nerves from several segments connect to different muscle areas. This suggests that the segments work together to control muscles with a high degree of precision. The team also discovered that sucker nerves also connect through the septa, creating what appears to be a neural spatial map of the suckers. This allows scientists to exercise fine, individual control over each of them—octopuses use each of them to sense their environment through touch and taste..

In the next step, scientists focused on identifying the relationship between segmentation of the axial nerve trunk and its function.. To do this, they turned to similar architecture in another group of cephalopods: squids.. It is known that squids separated from octopuses about 270 million years ago, and therefore the arrangement of their limbs is slightly different: squids also have 8 arms with suction cups, but also two tentacles without suction cups along the stem - these are located at the end on the club.

Squids and octopuses are known to use their limbs very differently: octopuses use their limbs to move along the seafloor and manipulate objects, while squids use them to capture and hold prey..

Researchers have discovered that the architecture of the axial nerve cord in the longfin shore squid (Doryteuthis pealeii) is very different from that of octopuses.. Additionally, there was no segmentation in tentacle stalks without suckers, but nerve segmentation was found in suckered clubs.

Scientists now believe that the segmented nervous system is associated with the control of suction limbs and is critical for fine and dexterous control.. At the same time, squids probably simply don't need as many segments, since they don't use their suckers to explore their environment..

Focus previously wrote that scientists have mapped the visual system of octopuses.