Researchers observed the behavior of amputated octopus arms, which remain very active for an hour after separation. Those observations showed that the arms never grabbed octopus skin, though they would grab a skinned octopus arm. The octopus arms didn’t grab Petri dishes covered with octopus skin, either, and they attached to dishes covered with octopus skin extract with much less force than they otherwise would。
在截?cái)嗾卖~(yú)的腕足后，研究人員觀察發(fā)現(xiàn)斷肢在離體一小時(shí)后仍相當(dāng)有活力。斷肢離體后的行為觀察顯示，斷肢不會(huì)吸附章魚(yú)皮膚，但是會(huì)吸附剝了皮的章魚(yú)腕足;斷肢也不會(huì)吸附覆蓋著章魚(yú)皮的培養(yǎng)皿。在吸附涂有章魚(yú)皮膚提取物的培養(yǎng)皿時(shí)，會(huì)比吸附空培養(yǎng)皿時(shí)使用更小的力量。一只章魚(yú)的八條腕足上密布著成百上千個(gè)吸盤(pán)，會(huì)吸附幾乎任何東西，但有一個(gè)重要的例外。這些吸盤(pán)一般不會(huì)吸附章魚(yú)自身;否則，這只極其靈活的動(dòng)物很快就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)自己整個(gè)糾纏在了一起。
Now, researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem report in the Cell Press publication Current Biology on May 15 that they have discovered how octopuses manage this feat, even as the octopuses’ brains are unaware of what their arms are doing. A chemical produced by octopus skin temporarily prevents their suckers from sucking。
現(xiàn)在，耶路撒冷希伯來(lái)大學(xué)的研究人員于5月15日在細(xì)胞期刊數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)(Cell Press [i])的期刊《現(xiàn)代生物》(Current Biology)上發(fā)表了他們的研究成果，并稱(chēng)他們已發(fā)現(xiàn)章魚(yú)實(shí)現(xiàn)這一壯舉的原理，甚至是章魚(yú)的大腦不知情的情況下完成這一行為。一種由章魚(yú)皮膚產(chǎn)生的化學(xué)物質(zhì)能夠在短期內(nèi)阻止其吸盤(pán)的吸附行為。
“We were surprised that nobody before us had noticed this very robust and easy-to-detect phenomena,” says Guy Levy, who carried out the research with co-first author Nir Nesher. “We were entirely surprised by the brilliant and simple solution of the octopus to this potentially very complicated problem。”
“這個(gè)現(xiàn)象非常強(qiáng)大且易于檢測(cè)，在我們之前竟無(wú)人注意到這一點(diǎn)，我們感到很驚訝，”與共同第一作者尼爾-內(nèi)舍(Nir Nesher)一同進(jìn)行了研究后，蓋伊-列維(Guy Levy)說(shuō)。“更讓我們驚訝的是章魚(yú)精彩而又簡(jiǎn)單地解決了這本會(huì)非常復(fù)雜的問(wèn)題。”
Binyamin Hochner and his colleagues had been working with octopuses for many years, focusing especially on their flexible arms and body motor control. There is a very good reason that octopuses don’t know where their arms are exactly, in the same way that people or other animals do。
本雅明-霍齊納(Binyamin Hochner)和他的同事研究章魚(yú)多年，尤其是關(guān)注他們靈活的腕足和身體運(yùn)動(dòng)的控制。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，章魚(yú)并不能像人與其他動(dòng)物一樣知道自己腕足的確切位置。
“Our motor control system is based on a rather fixed representation of the motor and sensory systems in the brain in a formant of maps that have body part coordinates,” Hochner explains。
“我們?nèi)祟?lèi)大腦中的感覺(jué)系統(tǒng)有分別對(duì)應(yīng)特定身體部位的區(qū)域，而運(yùn)動(dòng)控制系統(tǒng)則是一個(gè)相對(duì)固定的感覺(jué)系統(tǒng)對(duì)動(dòng)作的映射，”霍齊納解釋道。
That works for us because our rigid skeletons limit the number of possibilities. “It is hard to envisage similar mechanisms to function in the octopus brain because its very long and flexible arms have an infinite number of degrees of freedom,” Hochner continues. “Therefore, using such maps would have been tremendously difficult for the octopus, and maybe even impossible。”
這對(duì)于我們來(lái)說(shuō)是適用的，因?yàn)槲覀兘┯驳墓羌芟拗屏宋覀兓顒?dòng)。“在章魚(yú)大腦中也使用與之相似的機(jī)制是難以想象的，因?yàn)樗情L(zhǎng)而靈活的腕足可以進(jìn)行各種角度的運(yùn)動(dòng)，”霍齊納繼續(xù)說(shuō)道，“因此，如果章魚(yú)大腦中也用相似的區(qū)域分布來(lái)控制運(yùn)動(dòng)，會(huì)是相當(dāng)困難的，甚至是不可能的。”
Indeed, experiments have supported the notion that octopuses lack accurate knowledge about the position of their arms. And that raised an intriguing question: How, then, do octopuses avoid tying themselves up in knots?
事實(shí)上，實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果表明章魚(yú)確實(shí)并不能掌握其腕足確切位置。這樣的結(jié)果也引出了一個(gè)有趣的問(wèn)題：那么，章魚(yú)是怎樣避免把自己纏成一團(tuán)亂麻的呢?
To answer that question, the researchers observed the behavior of amputated octopus arms, which remain very active for an hour after separation. Those observations showed that the arms never grabbed octopus skin, though they would grab a skinned octopus arm. The octopus arms didn’t grab Petri dishes covered with octopus skin, either, and they attached to dishes covered with octopus skin extract with much less force than they otherwise would。
為了找到答案，研究人員將章魚(yú)腕足截取下來(lái)，觀察其行為，這些腕足在離體一小時(shí)后仍然相當(dāng)有活力。最終觀察結(jié)果顯示，腕足斷肢不會(huì)吸附章魚(yú)皮，但是會(huì)吸附剝了皮的章魚(yú)腕足;不會(huì)吸附覆蓋著章魚(yú)皮的培養(yǎng)皿，但是在吸附涂有章魚(yú)皮膚提取物的培養(yǎng)皿時(shí)，會(huì)比吸附空培養(yǎng)皿時(shí)使用更小的力量。
“The results so far show, and for the first time, that the skin of the octopus prevents octopus arms from attaching to each other or to themselves in a reflexive manner,” the researchers write. “The drastic reduction in the response to the skin crude extract suggests that a specific chemical signal in the skin mediates the inhibition of sucker grabbing。”
“目前為止，研究有了新發(fā)現(xiàn)：章魚(yú)皮膚能夠防止腕足間相互吸附或腕足吸附自身，”研究人員這樣寫(xiě)道。“對(duì)皮膚粗提取物的反應(yīng)急劇減弱說(shuō)明皮膚中存在一種特定的化學(xué)信號(hào)，這種化學(xué)信號(hào)會(huì)調(diào)解對(duì)吸盤(pán)吸附的抑制作用。”
In contrast to the behavior of the amputated arms, live octopuses can override that automatic mechanism when it is convenient. Living octopuses will sometimes grab an amputated arm, and they appear to be more likely to do so when that arm was not formerly their own。
與腕足斷肢的行為活動(dòng)相比，章魚(yú)能夠在適當(dāng)時(shí)候無(wú)視這種自動(dòng)機(jī)制。章魚(yú)有時(shí)會(huì)吸附一個(gè)斷肢，而且如果那不是自己的斷肢，他們更有可能這么做。
Hochner and his colleagues haven’t yet identified the active agent in the animals’ self-avoidance behavior, but they say it is yet another demonstration of octopus intelligence. The self-avoidance strategy might even find its way into bioinspired robot design。
霍齊納和他的同事們還沒(méi)能確定在動(dòng)物自我回避行為中起作用的活化劑，但是他們說(shuō)這是章魚(yú)智慧的又一次完美呈現(xiàn)。這種自我回避策略也許將來(lái)會(huì)應(yīng)用于仿生機(jī)器人的設(shè)計(jì)。
“Soft robots have advantages [in] that they can reshape their body,” Nesher says. “This is especially advantageous in unfamiliar environments with many obstacles that can be bypassed only by flexible manipulators, such as the internal human body environment。”
“柔軟的機(jī)器人的優(yōu)勢(shì)在于他們可以改變身體形狀，”內(nèi)舍說(shuō)。“這在一個(gè)陌生的環(huán)境中是尤其有利的，這樣可以利用靈活的機(jī)械手繞過(guò)重重障礙，比如在人體的內(nèi)部環(huán)境中。”
In fact, the researchers are sharing their findings with European Commission project STIFF-FLOP, aimed to develop a flexible surgical manipulator in the shape of an octopus arm. “We hope and believe that this mechanism will find expression in such new classes of robots and their control systems,” Hochner says。
事實(shí)上，研究者正在于歐洲委員會(huì)STIFF-FLOP項(xiàng)目共享他們的研究成果，該項(xiàng)目致力于研發(fā)章魚(yú)腕足形狀的手術(shù)操作臂�；酏R納說(shuō)：“我們希望并且相信這個(gè)機(jī)制能夠在這種新型機(jī)器人和他們的控制系統(tǒng)中發(fā)光發(fā)熱。”
