Rubber arm illusion in octopus.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Comparative Psychology
• Invertebrate Biology

Background:

• The sense of body ownership is crucial for self-consciousness.
• Body ownership has been observed in humans and some mammals.
• Its existence in invertebrates, like octopuses, remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the presence of body ownership in octopuses.
• To determine if invertebrates exhibit a sense of self-recognition in their limbs.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the rubber hand illusion paradigm, adapted for octopuses.
• Observed octopus behavior and responses to simulated arm stimuli.

Main Results:

• Octopuses demonstrated a sense of body ownership of their arms.
• The rubber hand illusion was successfully applied to an octopus, an invertebrate.

Conclusions:

• The octopus exhibits a sense of body ownership, similar to mammals.
• This finding extends the understanding of body ownership beyond vertebrates.