The Distributed Brain: A Paradox of Intelligence and Autonomy The octopus has long fascinated humans with its remarkable cognitive abilities, from unscrewing jars to outsmarting predators.
While it's easy to attribute these feats to the creature's supposedly "intelligent" brain, a more nuanced understanding reveals that the source of its smarts lies not just in its central nervous system but also in its eight arms, each a miniature hub of neural activity.
The Symbiotic Relationship Between Brain and Arms Research suggests that approximately two thirds of an octopus's roughly 500 million neurons reside in its arms, which are capable of independent movement and sensation.