Neurobiology: motor control of flexible octopus arms.
Animals with rigid skeletons can rely on several mechanisms to simplify motor control--for example, they have skeletal joints that reduce the number of variables and degrees of freedom that need to be controlled. Here we show that when the octopus uses one of its long and highly flexible arms to transfer an object from one place to another, it employs a vertebrate-like strategy, temporarily reconfiguring its arm into a stiffened, articulated, quasi-jointed structure. This indicates that an articulated limb may provide an optimal solution for achieving precise, point-to-point movements.
Sumbre
Germán
G
Department of Neurobiology and Interdisciplinary Center for Neuronal Computation, Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
Fiorito
Graziano
G
Flash
Tamar
T
Hochner
Binyamin
B
D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005121:Extremities / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005502:Food; D007596:Joints / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D049831:Octopodiformes / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*