Octopuses become more friendly while under the influence of ecstasy, a new report has revealed.
For those who have ever wondered what happens when you get sea creatures hooked on drugs, US scientists have found the answer.
An analysis showed that octopuses became distinctly more sociable when exposed to MDMA, which according to researchers indicates an evolutionary link between social behaviours of the eight-limbed molluscs and humans.
When humans consume ecstasy, they experience a rush of serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin which produces feelings of euphoria – making them more keen to physically connect.
Octopuses typically avoid others, including its own species. The creatures will eschew asocial behaviour for the purpose of mating, before reverting back to normal.
“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 Gül Dölen, assistant professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the lead investigator conducting the experiments.
“They tended to hug the cage and put their mouth parts on the cage. This is very similar to how humans react to MDMA; they touch each other frequently.”
The experiment took place with three connected water chambers; one empty, one with a plastic action figure under a cage and one with a female or male laboratory-bred octopus under a cage.
Four male and female octopuses were exposed to MDMA by putting them into a beaker containing a liquefied version of the drug, which is absorbed by the octopuses through their gills.
Then, the animals were placed in the experimental chambers for 30 minutes. All four tended to spend more time in the chamber where an octopus was caged than the other two chambers.