Kawashima Sumire, Ikeda Yuzuru
Graduate School of Engineering and Science, University of the Ryukyus, Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan.
Faculty of Science, University of the Ryukyus, Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan,
Zoolog Sci. 2025 Jun;42(3):260-269. doi: 10.2108/zs240069.
Octopuses have well-developed sensory organs and a large brain, which allows them to use multiple senses, such as vision, touch, and taste. Most studies on the sensory abilities of octopuses have focused on a single sensory modality, particularly vision. However, octopuses are simultaneously exposed to multiple sensory stimuli. If an octopus can transfer information about its environment between two different senses, then the flexibility of its multisensory system must provide an adaptive advantage. This type of recognition system is referred to as cross-modal recognition. Here, we describe cross-modal recognition between the vision and touch of novel objects in octopuses. Octopuses were engaged in learning three geometrically identical objects that provided different sensory information: i) a soft object transforming against touch (visual-only condition), ii) a hard object being shielded (tactile-only condition), and iii) a hard object (visuo-tactile condition). In the shape discrimination test of objects (ball vs. cross), all octopuses, except those in the visual-only condition, selected the correct object. Furthermore, octopuses that first learned about an object by touch immediately recognized it solely through vision. These observations indicate that octopuses are more likely to depend on the tactile information of objects in the process of forming representations of novel objects, and that cross-modal object recognition across tactile and visual perception exists in octopuses.
章鱼拥有发育良好的感觉器官和一个大的大脑，这使它们能够运用多种感官，如视觉、触觉和味觉。大多数关于章鱼感官能力的研究都集中在单一的感官模式上，尤其是视觉。然而，章鱼会同时受到多种感官刺激。如果章鱼能够在两种不同的感官之间传递有关其环境的信息，那么其多感官系统的灵活性必然会提供一种适应性优势。这种识别系统被称为跨模态识别。在此，我们描述章鱼对新物体的视觉和触觉之间的跨模态识别。章鱼参与学习三个几何形状相同但提供不同感官信息的物体：i）一个触摸时会变形的软物体（仅视觉条件），ii）一个被遮挡的硬物体（仅触觉条件），以及iii）一个硬物体（视觉 - 触觉条件）。在物体形状辨别测试（球与十字）中，除了仅处于视觉条件下的章鱼外，所有章鱼都选择了正确的物体。此外，最初通过触摸了解一个物体的章鱼能够仅通过视觉立即识别它。这些观察结果表明，章鱼在形成新物体表征的过程中更有可能依赖物体的触觉信息，并且章鱼存在跨触觉和视觉感知的跨模态物体识别。
