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Updated: Jul 26, 2025

Establishing an Octopus Ecosystem for Biomedical and Bioengineering Research
Published on: September 22, 2021
Toward an Understanding of Octopus Arm Motor Control
Cassady S Olson1, Clifton W Ragsdale2
1Committee on Computational Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago 60637, USA.
Abstract:
Octopuses have the extraordinary ability to control eight prehensile arms with hundreds of suckers. With these highly flexible limbs, they engage in a wide variety of tasks, including hunting, grooming, and exploring their environment. The neural circuitry generating these movements engages every division of the octopus nervous system, from the nerve cords of the arms to the supraesophegeal brain. In this review, the current knowledge on the neural control of octopus arm movements is discussed, highlighting open questions and areas for further study.
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