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posted by takyon on Friday September 21 2018, @07:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the Molly-bathing-for-fun dept.

Scientists have discovered that your ordinary, everyday octopus can get "high" on MDMA just like humans. While intoxicated with "molly", an octopus is likely to be more social and friendly towards others, changing from being antisocial to highly social, much like how the drug affects humans.

Human and octopus lineages are separated by over 500 million years of evolution and show divergent anatomical patterns of brain organisation, which makes this find surprising. This may make the octopus an attractive test subject for future drug trials.

In order to test the theory that an octopus is affected by MDMA in the same way as a human, an octopus was submerged in a tank of water mixed with MDMA, and later put into a series of three connected chambers, one of which had a caged octopus underneath. The stoned octopus chose to spend its time trying to play with the caged octopus, in a complete reversal of sober octopus nature.

A Conserved Role for Serotonergic Neurotransmission in Mediating Social Behavior in Octopus (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.07.061) (DX)


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 21 2018, @07:18PM (11 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 21 2018, @07:18PM (#738311)

    I've linked it before and I'll do it again. See Jerry Lettvin's octopus story here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Lettvin#Unusual_experiments [wikipedia.org] It's the last paragraph in this section.

    Without knowing more than what is in tfa, this experiment seems unethical (and makes me sad)--the octopus should have had some choice in deciding when and how much of the MDMA-laced water to imbibe. For example, a cage could have several tanks, with one of them laced.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday September 21 2018, @07:27PM (5 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday September 21 2018, @07:27PM (#738313) Journal

    Administering a little MDMA is far from the worst thing that can be done to your (essentially enslaved) mollusc friend.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday September 21 2018, @07:40PM (4 children)

      by Freeman (732) on Friday September 21 2018, @07:40PM (#738316) Journal

      Yep, they could be eaten alive, instead. https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/skorea-liveoctopus-pp [nationalgeographic.com]

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 21 2018, @07:50PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 21 2018, @07:50PM (#738318)
      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday September 21 2018, @09:41PM (2 children)

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday September 21 2018, @09:41PM (#738368) Homepage Journal

        Not since my ex told me they are intelligent: "Octopuses can open jars".

        --
        Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @02:05AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @02:05AM (#738443)

          And here I thought there were all sorts of debates amongst biologists about what constitutes a self being. If only they knew they just needed a few mason jars!

          • (Score: 4, Touché) by Gaaark on Saturday September 22 2018, @03:31AM

            by Gaaark (41) on Saturday September 22 2018, @03:31AM (#738472) Journal

            Mason jars allow themselves to be opened by octopuses without appearing to get all squeamish! Mason jars show self-awareness and intelligence!
            :)

            --
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 21 2018, @09:41PM (3 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday September 21 2018, @09:41PM (#738367)

    Not judging the ethics of the situation: the law on animal experimentation draws a bright line at vertebrate vs non-vertebrate. Frogs have serious protection, whereas cuttlefish and octopi do not.

    As far as the ethics go, I believe octopi to be far more intelligent and deserving of protection than most mammals.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @11:45AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @11:45AM (#738521)

      Mammal bias! Racist! Jail! 1 year! No parole! Daily flogging!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @02:51PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @02:51PM (#738545)

        How 'bout a daily frogging, instead?

        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday September 29 2018, @03:03AM

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday September 29 2018, @03:03AM (#741661)

          frogging

          That would be vertebrate cruelty, unless you have an approved protocol to be executed in an inspected facility by trained personnel.

          On the other hand, if you want to be slapped with an octopus, there's no paperwork required for that.

          --
          🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday September 21 2018, @11:44PM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Friday September 21 2018, @11:44PM (#738406)

    Hey, it knew when it swam into the tank hosting the Electric Eel Daisy Carnival, it was taking its chances. Cephalopod, right? It's no dummy.