Cephalopod learning and memory

Abstract

Cephalopod molluscs are renowned for their unique central nervous system - a donut-shaped brain organised around the oesophagus. This brain supports sophisticated learning and memory abilities. Between the 1950s and 1980s, these cognitive abilities were extensively studied in octopus (Figure 1A) - a now leading model for the study of memory and its neural substrates (approximately 200 papers during this period). The focus on octopus learning and memory was mainly due to their curious nature and the fact that they adapt to laboratory-controlled conditions, making them easy to test and maintain in captivity. Research on cephalopod cognition began to widen in the late 20th century, when scientists started focusing on other coleoid cephalopods (i.e., cuttlefish and squid) (Figure 1B,C), and not just on associative learning and memory per se, but other more complex aspects of cognition such as episodic-like memory (the ability to remember the what, where, and when of a past event), source memory (the retrieval of contextual details from a memory), and self-control (the ability to inhibit an action in the present to gain a more valuable future reward). Attention broadened further over the last two decades to focus on the shelled cephalopods - the nautiloids (Figure 1D). The nautiloids have relatively primitive brains compared to their soft-bodied cousins (octopus, cuttlefish, and squid) but research shows that they are still able to comparatively succeed in some cognitive tasks. In this primer, we will provide a general description of the types of memory studied in cephalopods, and discuss learning and memory experiments that address the main challenges cephalopods face during their daily lives: navigation, timing, and food selection. Determining the type of information cephalopods learn and remember and whether they use such information to overcome ecological challenges will highlight why these invertebrates evolved large and sophisticated brains.