TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Cláudio Guerra: Why the octopus brain is so extraordinary

Unscramble the Blue Letters

What could octopuses possibly have in common with us? After all, they don't have lungs, spines, or even a parlul noun we can all agree on. But what they do have is the ability to solve puzzles, learn through observation, and even use tools, just like some other animals we know. And what makes octopus intelligence so amazing is that it comes from a biological structure completely different from ours. The 200 or so species of octopuses are mollusks belonging to the order cephalopoda, gerek for head-feet. Those heads contain impressively large brains, with a brain to body ratio silimar to that of other ieltgnielnt animals, and a complex nrueovs system with about as many neurons as that of a dog. But instead of being centralized in the brain, these 500 million neonurs are saperd out in a network of interconnected ganglia organized into three basic structures. The central brain only contains about 10% of the neurons, while the two huge optic lobes contain about 30%. The other 60% are in the tentacles, which for humans would be like our arms having minds of their own. This is where things get even more interesting. Vertebrates like us have a rigid skeleton to support our bidoes, with jotins that allow us to move. But not all types of movement are aloewld. You can't bend your knee backwards, or bend your forearm in the middle, for example. Cephalopods, on the other hand, have no bones at all, alnwilog them to bend their limbs at any point and in any direction. So sahping their tentacles into any one of the vltalriuy limitless number of possible arrangements is unlike anything we are used to. Consider a simple task, like grabbing and eating an apple. The human bairn contains a neurological map of our body. When you see the alppe, your brain's motor center activates the appropriate muscles, allowing you to reach out with your arm, grab it with your hand, bend your elbow joint, and bnrig it to your mouth. For an octopus, the process is quite different. Rather than a body map, the cephalopod brain has a bhvoiear library. So when an octopus sees food, its brain doesn't activate a specific body part, but rather a baaivroehl response to grab. As the signal taerlvs through the norwetk, the arm neurons pick up the message and jump into action to command the movement. As soon as the arm touehcs the food, a muscle aviacttion wave travels all the way through the arm to its base, while the arm sends back another wave from the base to the tip. The signals meet hawlfay between the food and the base of the arm, letting it know to bend at that spot. What all this means is that each of an octopus's eight arms can eeltlsansiy think for itself. This gives it amazing flexibility and creativity when facing a new situation or problem, whether its opening a bottle to reach food, enscipag through a maze, moving around in a new environment, changing the texture and the color of its skin to belnd into the secerny, or even mimicking other creatures to scare away enemies. Cephalopods may have evoveld cmloepx brains long before our vertebrate relatives. And octopus intelligence isn't just useful for octopuses. Their racillady different nervous sstyem and autonomously thinking appneagdes have inspired new research in developing fxbilele robots made of soft mealirtas. And studying how iinlltengece can arise along such a divergent evolutionary path can help us understand more about intelligence and consciousness in general. Who knows what other forms of intelligent life are possible, or how they process the world around them.

Open Cloze

What could octopuses possibly have in common with us? After all, they don't have lungs, spines, or even a ______ noun we can all agree on. But what they do have is the ability to solve puzzles, learn through observation, and even use tools, just like some other animals we know. And what makes octopus intelligence so amazing is that it comes from a biological structure completely different from ours. The 200 or so species of octopuses are mollusks belonging to the order cephalopoda, _____ for head-feet. Those heads contain impressively large brains, with a brain to body ratio _______ to that of other ___________ animals, and a complex _______ system with about as many neurons as that of a dog. But instead of being centralized in the brain, these 500 million _______ are ______ out in a network of interconnected ganglia organized into three basic structures. The central brain only contains about 10% of the neurons, while the two huge optic lobes contain about 30%. The other 60% are in the tentacles, which for humans would be like our arms having minds of their own. This is where things get even more interesting. Vertebrates like us have a rigid skeleton to support our ______, with ______ that allow us to move. But not all types of movement are _______. You can't bend your knee backwards, or bend your forearm in the middle, for example. Cephalopods, on the other hand, have no bones at all, ________ them to bend their limbs at any point and in any direction. So _______ their tentacles into any one of the _________ limitless number of possible arrangements is unlike anything we are used to. Consider a simple task, like grabbing and eating an apple. The human _____ contains a neurological map of our body. When you see the _____, your brain's motor center activates the appropriate muscles, allowing you to reach out with your arm, grab it with your hand, bend your elbow joint, and _____ it to your mouth. For an octopus, the process is quite different. Rather than a body map, the cephalopod brain has a ________ library. So when an octopus sees food, its brain doesn't activate a specific body part, but rather a __________ response to grab. As the signal _______ through the _______, the arm neurons pick up the message and jump into action to command the movement. As soon as the arm _______ the food, a muscle __________ wave travels all the way through the arm to its base, while the arm sends back another wave from the base to the tip. The signals meet _______ between the food and the base of the arm, letting it know to bend at that spot. What all this means is that each of an octopus's eight arms can ___________ think for itself. This gives it amazing flexibility and creativity when facing a new situation or problem, whether its opening a bottle to reach food, ________ through a maze, moving around in a new environment, changing the texture and the color of its skin to _____ into the _______, or even mimicking other creatures to scare away enemies. Cephalopods may have _______ _______ brains long before our vertebrate relatives. And octopus intelligence isn't just useful for octopuses. Their _________ different nervous ______ and autonomously thinking __________ have inspired new research in developing ________ robots made of soft _________. And studying how ____________ can arise along such a divergent evolutionary path can help us understand more about intelligence and consciousness in general. Who knows what other forms of intelligent life are possible, or how they process the world around them.

Solution

behavior
behavioral
blend
joints
touches
system
allowing
halfway
brain
escaping
activation
virtually
radically
appendages
flexible
evolved
travels
allowed
shaping
scenery
bodies
apple
bring
complex
nervous
intelligence
materials
intelligent
similar
plural
spread
greek
network
essentially
neurons

Original Text

What could octopuses possibly have in common with us? After all, they don't have lungs, spines, or even a plural noun we can all agree on. But what they do have is the ability to solve puzzles, learn through observation, and even use tools, just like some other animals we know. And what makes octopus intelligence so amazing is that it comes from a biological structure completely different from ours. The 200 or so species of octopuses are mollusks belonging to the order cephalopoda, Greek for head-feet. Those heads contain impressively large brains, with a brain to body ratio similar to that of other intelligent animals, and a complex nervous system with about as many neurons as that of a dog. But instead of being centralized in the brain, these 500 million neurons are spread out in a network of interconnected ganglia organized into three basic structures. The central brain only contains about 10% of the neurons, while the two huge optic lobes contain about 30%. The other 60% are in the tentacles, which for humans would be like our arms having minds of their own. This is where things get even more interesting. Vertebrates like us have a rigid skeleton to support our bodies, with joints that allow us to move. But not all types of movement are allowed. You can't bend your knee backwards, or bend your forearm in the middle, for example. Cephalopods, on the other hand, have no bones at all, allowing them to bend their limbs at any point and in any direction. So shaping their tentacles into any one of the virtually limitless number of possible arrangements is unlike anything we are used to. Consider a simple task, like grabbing and eating an apple. The human brain contains a neurological map of our body. When you see the apple, your brain's motor center activates the appropriate muscles, allowing you to reach out with your arm, grab it with your hand, bend your elbow joint, and bring it to your mouth. For an octopus, the process is quite different. Rather than a body map, the cephalopod brain has a behavior library. So when an octopus sees food, its brain doesn't activate a specific body part, but rather a behavioral response to grab. As the signal travels through the network, the arm neurons pick up the message and jump into action to command the movement. As soon as the arm touches the food, a muscle activation wave travels all the way through the arm to its base, while the arm sends back another wave from the base to the tip. The signals meet halfway between the food and the base of the arm, letting it know to bend at that spot. What all this means is that each of an octopus's eight arms can essentially think for itself. This gives it amazing flexibility and creativity when facing a new situation or problem, whether its opening a bottle to reach food, escaping through a maze, moving around in a new environment, changing the texture and the color of its skin to blend into the scenery, or even mimicking other creatures to scare away enemies. Cephalopods may have evolved complex brains long before our vertebrate relatives. And octopus intelligence isn't just useful for octopuses. Their radically different nervous system and autonomously thinking appendages have inspired new research in developing flexible robots made of soft materials. And studying how intelligence can arise along such a divergent evolutionary path can help us understand more about intelligence and consciousness in general. Who knows what other forms of intelligent life are possible, or how they process the world around them.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
octopus intelligence	2
nervous system	2

Important Words

ability
action
activate
activates
activation
agree
allowed
allowing
amazing
animals
appendages
apple
arise
arm
arms
arrangements
autonomously
base
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cephalopod
cephalopoda
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changing
color
command
common
completely
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consciousness
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developing
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dog
eating
elbow
enemies
environment
escaping
essentially
evolutionary
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facing
flexibility
flexible
food
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ganglia
general
grab
grabbing
greek
halfway
hand
heads
huge
human
humans
impressively
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interesting
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learn
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library
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limbs
limitless
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map
materials
maze
means
meet
message
middle
million
mimicking
minds
mollusks
motor
mouth
move
movement
moving
muscle
muscles
nervous
network
neurological
neurons
noun
number
observation
octopus
octopuses
opening
optic
order
organized
part
path
pick
plural
point
possibly
problem
process
puzzles
radically
ratio
reach
relatives
research
response
rigid
robots
scare
scenery
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shaping
signal
signals
similar
simple
situation
skeleton
skin
soft
solve
species
specific
spines
spot
spread
structure
structures
studying
support
system
task
tentacles
texture
thinking
tip
tools
touches
travels
types
understand
vertebrate
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virtually
wave
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