Arm injury produces long-term behavioral and neural hypersensitivity in octopus

DWhatley

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Arm injury produces long-term behavioral and neural hypersensitivity in octopus
Jean S. Alupay,Stavros P. Hadjisolomou,Robyn J. Crook
Complementing Robyn's OTHER paper on squid, this study investigates the possibility of pain experiences in octopuses.

Highlights
  • Arm injury evokes hypersensitivity to touch and wound-directed protective behavior
  • Low-threshold and nociceptive mechanosensory neurons sensitize after injury.
  • Pattern of acute (5 min) and persistent (24 h) neuronal hyperexcitability is similar.
  • Distinction between pain and nociception in octopus is more complex than in squid.

Abstract
Cephalopod molluscs are the most neurally and behaviorally complex invertebrates, with brains rivaling those of some vertebrates in size and complexity. This has fostered the opinion that cephalopods, particularly octopuses, may experience vertebrate-like pain when injured. However, it is not known whether octopuses possess nociceptors or if their somatic sensory neurons exhibit sensitization after injury. Here we show that the octopus Abdopus aculeatus expresses nocifensive behaviors including arm autotomy, and displays marked neural hyperexcitability both in injured and uninjured arms for at least 24 h after injury. These findings do not demonstrate that octopuses experience pain-like states; instead they add to the minimal existing literature on how cephalopods receive, process, and integrate noxious sensory information, potentially informing and refining regulations governing use of cephalopods in scientific research.
 
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Thanks for posting this, Denise! This is a short study that I did in the summer with Stavros (also a tonmo member, who might stop by this thread, and Jean, who is a great grad student in Roy's (neogonodactylus) lab. So this one has a lot of links to the Tonmo community.
In this one, like in squid, we stop short of saying for sure whether or not octopuses can feel pain, because here we focused on neural and behavioural responses that are in part, reflexes. Because pain is emotional and subjective, it is hard to measure and we need a lot more evidence to make any conclusions. What we did show clearly is that arm injuries have long-term effects on protective behaviours that could be one indication of pain experience.
I do not have a finalised copy of the pdf yet, but I will be happy to send it to anyone interested when I do.
 
I am still "thinking" about how and what to put in a new tips and tricks page for all the different features of the new bulletin board software. One item is the ability to "tag" a post with a members name preceded with the @ sign to get a member's attention (after starting with @ and a couple of letters, a popup selection list will appear to help with spelling). The tagged member will get an alert (shown in the upper right corner) when they sign in and an email if emails are selected in the member's profile. soooo, @Stavros

Edit: New Tips and Tricks available
 
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Nice to see this posted here. As Robyn said, we learned quite a lot in a short period of time; there's a lot of potential in comparing across species to find important differences and we sometimes overlook this in favor of simplicity. It'd be a good idea to return to this thread for further discussion once the manuscript is out.

Many thanks to Robyn who orchestrated this collaboration and to Jean for sharing her procedures, it was an awesome experience.
 
Thanks for posting this, Denise! This is a short study that I did in the summer with Stavros (also a tonmo member, who might stop by this thread, and Jean, who is a great grad student in Roy's (neogonodactylus) lab. So this one has a lot of links to the Tonmo community.

Love that! :thumbsup:
 

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