Centres for Tactile and Visual Learning in the Brain of Octopus

Abstract

ABSTRACT Octopuses were trained to stop reacting to visual and tactile stimuli normally eliciting positive responses, and to make visual and tactile discriminations. The effect on performance of removal of parts from the brain was observed. It appears that Octopus has two learning systems, one in the inferior frontal and subfrontal lobes, dealing with tactile discrimination on a basis of the proportion of sense organs excited, the other in the optic lobes, handling visual discrimination on a basis of the pattern of sense organs excited. The vertical lobe plays a part in learning by either system, and is to some extent a store for both tactile and visual memories.