Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T04:52:48.261Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Light has many meanings for cephalopods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

J. Z. Young
J. Z. Young
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The uses of light for cephalopods living at various depths are described. Aphakic apertures are shown in the eyes of Amphitretus and bolitaenids. In cirrate octopods, the eye is an open cup without lens and the retinal rhabdoms are disorganized. The photosensitive vesicles of cephalopods are extraocular receptors present either in the mantle or on the head. In some mesopelagic forms, they serve to compare the downwelling light with that emitted by the animal's own photophores, thus allowing regulation of counterillumination. In bathypelagic species, the photosensitive vesicles are very large and may serve to ensure reproduction at great depths.

Some of the uses of the paired eyes in shallow water species are discussed. The mechanism for visual learning consists of a system for allowing many possible combinations of the output from numerous feature detectors. This begins with a set of columns in the optic lobes, followed by a tangential system. Outputs from the optic lobe lead to either attack or retreat: a third output leads to a memory system of four matrices allowing for interaction among the visual signals and between them and signals of taste or pain. These matrices allow conjunctive interaction between particular sets of signals and the setting up of memories ensuring appropriate responses. The matrices may be considered as analogous with those of the mammalian hippocampus. They include re-excitation among themselves and with the optic lobes. The tactile memory apparatus of the octopus has four similar lobes and also makes use of the four lobes of the visual system. These are therefore striking examples of adaptive networks allowing learned reactions by statistical selection among numerous channels. The anatomy, function, and generalizing powers of these networks emerged from Boycotts's early work, whose significance for computation can now be appreciated.

Keywords

Cephalopod visionEyes in deep seaPhotosensitive vesiclesMemory in OctopusAdaptive networks
Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 7 , Issue 1-2 , August 1991 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aldred, R., Nixon, M. & Young, J.Z. (1983). Cirrothauma murrayi Chun, a finned octopod. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 301, 1–54.Google Scholar
Boycott, B.B. (1961). The functional organization of the brain of the cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). Proceedings of the Royal Society B 153, 503–534.Google Scholar
Boycott, B.B. & Young, J.Z. (1950). The comparative study of learning, Symposium of the Society for Experimental Biology 4, 432–453.Google Scholar
Boycott, B.B. & Young, J.Z. (1955). A memory system in Octopus vulgaris Lamark. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 143, 449–480.Google Scholar
Cajal, S.R. (1917). Contribución al conociemento de la retina y centros ópticos de los cefalópódos. Trabajos del Laboratorio de Investigaciones Biologicas de la Universidad de Madrid 15, 1–82.Google Scholar
Gray, E.G. & Young, J.Z. (1964). Electron microscopy of synaptic structure of Octopus brain. Journal of Cell Biology 21, 87–103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haefelfinger, H.R. (1954). Inkretorische drüsenkomplexe im gehirn decapoder cephalopoden. Revue Suisse de Zoologie 61, 151–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanlon, R.T. & Messenger, J.B. (1988). Adaptive coloration in young cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis): the morphology and development of body patterns and their relation to behavior. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 320, 437–487.Google Scholar
Kohonen, T. (1988). Self-Organization and Memory. Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Mauro, A. & Baumann, F. (1968). Electrophysiological evidence of photoreceptors in the epistellar body of Eledone moschata. Nature 220, 342–343.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moody, M.F. & Parriss, J.R. (1961). The discrimination of polarized light by Octopus: a behavioral and morphological study. Zeitschrift für vergleichende Physiologie 44, 268–291.Google Scholar
Nishioka, R.S., Hagadorn, I.R. & Bern, H.A. (1962). Ultrastructure of the epistellar body of the octopus. Zeitschrift für Zellforschung und mikroskopische Anatomie 57, 406–421.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nishioka, R.S., Yasumasu, I., Packard, A., Bern, H.A. & Young, J.Z. (1966). Nature of vesicles associated with the nervous system of cephalopods. Zeitschrift für Zellforschung 75, 301–316.Google Scholar
Rolls, E.T. (1990). Function of the primate hippocampus in spatial processing and memory. In Neurobiology of Comparative Cognition, ed. Holton, D.S. & Kesner, R.P., Hillsdale, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Saidel, W.M. (1982). Connections of the Octopus optic lobe: an HRP study. Journal of Comparative Neurology 206, 346–358.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saidel, W.M., Lettvin, J.Y. & Macnichol, E.F. (1983). Processing of polarized light by squid photoreceptors. Nature 304, 534–536.Google Scholar
Seidu, M. et al. (1990). On the three visual pigments in the retina of the firefly squid (Watasenia scintillans). Journal of Comparative Physiology A 166(6), 769.Google Scholar
Sutherland, N.S. (1958). Visual discrimination of the orientation of rectangles by Octopus vulgaris Lamark. Journal of Comparative Physiology and Psychology 51, 452–458.Google Scholar
Thore, S. (1939). Beiträge zur Kenntnis der vergleichenden anatomie des zentralen nervensystems der dibranchiaten cephalopoden. Publicazioni della Stazione Zoologica di Napoli 17, 313–506.Google Scholar
Wells, M.J. (1962). Early learning in Sepia. Symposium of the Zoological Society (London) 8, 149–169.Google Scholar
Wells, M.J. (1978). Octopus. London; Chapman & Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, M.J. & Wells, J. (1957). The effect of lesions to the vertical and optic lobes on tactile discrimination in Octopus. Journal of Experimental Biology 34, 469–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, J.Z. (1929). Sopra un nuovo organo dei cefalopodi. Bolletino della Societá Italiana di Biologia Sperimentale 4, 1–3.Google Scholar
Young, J.Z. (1961). Learning and discrimination in the octopus. Biological Review 36, 32–96.Google Scholar
Young, J.Z. (1964). A Model of the Brain. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Young, J.Z. (1965). The organization of a memory system. The Croonian Lecture. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 163, 285–320.Google Scholar
Young, J.Z. (1970). The stalked eyes of Bathothauma. Journal of Zoology (London) 162, 437–447.Google Scholar
Young, J.Z. (1971). The Anatomy of the Nervous System of Octopus vulgaris. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Young, J.Z. (1983). The distributed tactile memory system of Octopus. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 218, 135–176.Google Scholar
Young, J.Z. (1991). Computation in the learning systems of cephalopods. Biological Bulletin (in press).Google Scholar
Young, R.E. (1977). Ventral bioluminescent countershading in mid-water cephalopods. Symposium of the Zoological Society (London) 38, 161–190.Google Scholar
Young, R.E. (1978). Vertical distribution of photosensitive vesicles of pelagic cephalopods from Hawaiian waters. Fisheries Bulletin 76, 583–613.Google Scholar
Young, R.E., Roper, C.F.E. & Walters, J.F. (1979). Eyes and extraocular photoreceptors in midwater cephalopods and fishes. Their roles in detecting downwelling light for counterillumination. Journal of Marine Biology 51, 371–380.Google Scholar