Octopus Arms Have Minds of Their Own (Originally aired May 9, 2017)

Guest: Sy Montgomery, Author, “The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness” Having an extra hand would certainly be convenient from time to time, but imagine if that extra appendage also had a mind of its own. What if it even had a bit of its own personality – like if it preferred to draw with pen, rather than pencil? That’s bizarre to consider, but for an octopus, it may be true, because the octopus has more than half of its neurons located on its eight arms instead of having them all concentrated in its brain like humans.