Octopuses fall for the ‘rubber arm’ illusion, just like us experiment shows octopuses feel body ownership, a trait previously seen only in mammals.
## Octopuses and the Rubber Arm: Turns Out, They’re Just Like Us!
**Body ownership isn’t just for mammals anymore.**
Okay, so you know how sometimes you see a science headline and it just *grabs* you? That was me when I stumbled across this one: Octopuses fall for the ‘rubber arm’ illusion, just like us!
My first thought? “Seriously? Octopuses?”
Turns out, scientists did a study where they tricked octopuses into thinking a rubber arm was their own. If you’re not familiar, the “rubber arm illusion” is a classic experiment. Basically, you hide your real arm and put a rubber arm in front of you. Then someone strokes both your real arm (hidden) and the rubber arm in sync. After a while, your brain starts to feel like the rubber arm *is* your arm. Wild, right?
They did the same thing with octopuses, and guess what? It worked! The octopuses started to react to threats near the rubber arm as if it were their own.
Here’s why this is so cool:
* **Body ownership:** This feeling of “this is my body” was previously thought to be mostly a mammal thing.
* **Brains are weird:** It shows how adaptable and easily fooled our brains (and octopus brains!) can be.
* **Octopuses are even cooler than we thought:** Seriously, these creatures just keep surprising me.
So, what does it all mean? Well, it suggests that the way we experience our bodies is maybe more fundamental than we thought. And it reminds us that even creatures as different from us as octopuses can share some surprising similarities.
Next time you see an octopus, remember: they might be pondering the nature of body ownership, just like you.