Scientists gave MDMA to octopuses... and discovered something incredible

A team of researchers in the US decided to give a group of octopuses MDMA, often referred to as ecstasy or Molly to see how it would alter their behaviour.

After being dosed, the sea creatures become much more social, friendly and interested in others, and researchers say the reaction has “amazing” implications.

Normally anti-social, the creatures then wanted to gather together, hug, and touch each other.

In fact, they noted that the sea animals showed much the same behaviour as humans do when taking the drug, including euphoria and a desire for social connection.

And that’s weird part.

The research goes on to explain how human and octopus lineages are separated by over 500 million years of evolution.

And that in terms of our nervous system and brain function, we could hardly be more different.

The purpose of the study was for scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Masscusetts to work out if octopuses and humans shared any genetic links.

What the experiment revealed was that both species had near-identical genomic codes for serotonin, the brain chemical that regulates mood and is thought to be a contributor to feelings of wellbeing and happiness. Crazy!

“Despite these differences, growing evidence suggests that ancient neurotransmitter systems are shared across vertebrate and invertebrate species and in many cases enable overlapping functions,” scientists wrote in the study report published in the journal Current Biology.

“The brains of octopuses are more similar to those of snails than humans, but our studies add to evidence that they can exhibit some of the same behaviours that we can,” said Dr Gül Dölen, a professor at John Hopkins University who led the experiments.

“What our studies suggest is that certain brain chemicals, or neurotransmitters, that send signals between neurons required for these social behaviours are evolutionarily conserved.”