Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

Full Version: Cuttlefish pass marshmallow test + Octopuses feel pain emotionally, not just physi...
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
Cuttlefish have passed the “marshmallow test” originally designed for human children
https://mymodernmet.com/cuttlefish-cognitive-test/

INTRO: If you sat in front of a delicious marshmallow, would you be able to wait to eat it? What about if you knew that if you wait, in 15 minutes you could get two? This is the format of the famous Stanford marshmallow experiment, which was designed in the 1970s to test human children's ability to delay gratification. Modified versions of the cognitive test have also been used by animal researchers to understand the capabilities of dogs, parrots, and other creatures. Recently, researchers publishing their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B discovered that the common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) can exert self-control in a rendition of the marshmallow test designed for the tastes of cephalopods.

At a point in child development, humans learn to plan for the future. This skill enables them to control their impulses and delay eating the first marshmallow to wait for a larger reward. Other animals are capable of such planning when faced with similar situations... (MORE)


Octopuses not only feel pain physically, but emotionally too, first study finds
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-...-feel-pain

INTRO: The experience of pain is far more than a simple reflex to harmful stimuli or injury; it's a complex emotional state, leading to distress or suffering. While vertebrates are generally thought to experience both the physical and emotional aspects of pain, it remains unresolved whether or not invertebrates, which generally have much simpler nervous systems, are capable of something similar.

Octopuses are the most neurologically complex invertebrates on Earth, and yet surprisingly few experiments have focused on their potential for experiencing pain. Neurobiologist Robyn Crook from San Francisco State University has been investigating this issue for years, and the latest work from her lab has now used the same protocols for testing pain in laboratory rodents on cephalopods - specifically, the octopus.

Using detailed measurements of spontaneous pain-associated behaviors and neural activity, Crook has identified three lines of evidence that all indicate octopuses are capable of feeling negative emotional states when confronted with pain. These are the same characteristics that mammals show, despite the fact that the octopus nervous system is organized in a fundamentally different way to vertebrates.

Of course, it's really difficult for scientists to interpret a subjective feeling or emotional state in an animal - especially one so different from us - but Crook argues the behavior shown by octopuses in these experiments suggests they are probably experiencing the physical and emotional components of pain in a way not so different to rodents, including lasting changes in their affective state (what we would call, in humans, our mood, feelings and attitudes)... (MORE)