Octopi On Ecstasy

In a recent study, researchers conducted an experiment in which they gave octopuses the amphetamine MDMA, better known as ecstasy. Ecstasy in humans can cause feelings of euphoria, heightened emotions, a heightened sense of mental clarity, and hallucinations. Ecstasy is nicknamed the “love drug” because of the great surge of serotonin that happens in the brain as a result of taking the drug.

Octopuses, however are not very ecstatic creatures by nature. They are very antisocial animals that only really interact with each other while mating. They have to be kept in separate tanks from each other at zoos and research facilities because they get aggressive towards each other. This aggression in confined spaces often leads to the octopuses fighting and/or eating each other. So what would happen if they were given the “love drug”?

A neuroscientist from Johns Hopkins, Gul Dolen, says that first the octopuses were given large amounts of the drugs, just to see if anything would happen at all. The octopuses that were given MDMA were said to have appeared to not like it. Dolen stated, “they looked like they were super freaked out.” She also said that they were taking stances of hypervigilance and sitting in the corner of the tanks staring at everything. They, apparently, became very anxious and paranoid when given high doses of the drug.

But some octopuses were given a lower dose, one that was more similar in proportion to the ones that a human might take. These octopuses exhibited a vast change in behavior. The researchers knew from the past that if there were two octopuses confined to one tank, they would try to stay as far away from each other as possible. However, an octopus that was given MDMA got up close to its roommate, spending more time on the other’s side of the tank. They got more touchy with each other, and Dolen said, “they were essentially hugging.”

This reaction to MDMA is strange, for the very fact that it is so similar to humans. Octopuses and humans diverged from a common ancestor more than 500 million years ago. They have their own complex brain system that is very different from humans. This, of course, makes sense, as octopuses and humans have been living and evolving apart from each other for hundreds of millions of years and have no business being as similar as they apparently are. Humans developed massively intelligent brains on land, while octopuses were developing their own, separate complex brains deep under the ocean’s surface. So why is it that humans and octopuses have the same reaction to a drug created by humans in 1912?

As it happens, humans and octopuses have certain genes that are almost identical. These genes can create a protein that binds serotonin to brain cells. This protein is also what MDMA targets, so there was bound to be a similar reaction. But what does this mean? It proves that serotonin has been helping encode social functions for at least 500 million years, as that is the last point that humans and octopuses were the same, diverging from a single common ancestor that is equally as related to humans as it is to octopuses.

Of course, we don’t know if the octopuses are actually enjoying themselves when they are under the influence of MDMA. Researchers saw that it made them less restrained around each other, and it also made them more affectionate physically. But who’s to say that they actually felt happy? It’s not as if the researchers were able to ask them how they feel. Researchers have no way to monitor the brain activity of octopuses because their central and peripheral nervous systems are so different from humans that any tests humans have that monitor brain activity (electroencephalograms or EEGs) would most likely be useless on octopuses anyways.

However, the research that has been done can perhaps lead into greater research as to how complex nervous systems can develop over time. Studying species closer to the metaphorical roots of the tree of life might also be able to reveal, “the mechanisms behind remarkable behaviors like limb regeneration and camouflage,” said Dolen, as both are skills that octopuses possess but humans do not.

But how ethical is this? What researchers have done here is give animals -living, breathing creatures- “party drugs,” that are illegal in most countries and are not safe for any medical purpose, as the FDA decided earlier in 2018. Why is it okay to give these dangerous drugs to animals when we know full well that they are dangerous? And how do we know when to stop? Researchers on the team say that it is important to have a specific goal in mind when doing these experiments and to not just be doing them for the heck of it. They also know that the octopuses’ happiness and well being is very important. They were being very careful not to cause them harm or distress. But Dolen makes another point: octopuses are used as food by humans. Better they be given drugs that make them hug each other than be killed and eaten by us, right?