This Octopus Has Nine Brains—and It’s Smarter Than You Think
Jul 12, 2025 · For the octopus, the mind is not just confined to its central brain. Its intelligence extends across its entire body, as each arm is capable of learning and responding to its surroundings. This is …
The Unique Nervous System of Octopuses: Their Nine Brains Explained
Jul 2, 2025 · Intriguing and incredibly unique, octopuses are cephalopods with three hearts that pump blue blood throughout their eight arms. These intelligent sea creatures have multiple brains — nine, …
Why the Octopus Brain is so Extraordinary - Smithsonian Ocean
An octopus is a lot brainier than you might imagine considering one of its closest living relatives is a sea slug. In fact, some scientists argue it could be the first intelligent being on the planet.
The nine-armed octopus and the oddities of the cephalopod nervous ...
Jun 7, 2025 · The octopus’ brain sits between its eyes at the front of its mantle, or head, couched between its two optic lobes, large bean-shaped neural organs that help octopuses see the world …
Octopus Brain Anatomy: A Decentralized Nervous System
Jul 25, 2025 · The octopus possesses a central brain located in its head, which encircles its esophagus. This brain is highly complex and folded, resembling intricate structures found in some vertebrates. It …
Cephalopod intelligence - Wikipedia
Unlike vertebrates, octopus arms have their own neurons, so they do not require input from their central brain to function. [1] In fact, two-thirds of an octopus's neurons are in the nerve cords of its arms.
The Mind of an Octopus - Scientific American
Jan 1, 2017 · Octopuses and their relatives (cuttlefish and squid) represent an island of mental complexity in the sea of invertebrate animals. Since my first encounters with these creatures about a …
Nine Brains Are Better Than One: An Octopus’ Nervous System
Apr 7, 2021 · The octopus does, in fact, have a central brain located between its eyes containing about 180 million neurons. This is the part of the nervous system that determines what the octopus wants …
How Many Brains Does an Octopus Have? - Octopus Brain Anatomy
Dec 31, 2025 · Octopuses have nine brains. One is a central brain located in the head, while the other eight are distributed throughout their eight arms. These arm brains or ganglia allow the arms to work …
Inside the mind of an octopus - American Psychological Association …
They have one central brain, but what this comes from is the fact that only two-fifths of the nerves of the octopus are in the brain. Three-fifths are out there in the arms, and each arm in fact has a chain of …