Unlike us, specific regions of an octopus’ motor cortex don’t correspond to specific parts of its body. Instead, each region controls different parts at different times. Their motor neural network seems as flexible as their bodies — a phenomenon that expands the range of neurophysiological possibility, and could refine the design of arm-flexing robots.
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An octopus brain sends a general prompt, and the arm computes the specifics: It’s much simpler than running all those calculations in the brain itself. And all this is especially interesting to roboticists who want to build machines with flexible appendages, ideal for rescue bots working in disaster areas or surgical machines weaving through a body.
– Wired
