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LINK Octopuses taking MDMA get all huggy and loved-up with each other | New Scientist

So cool!

"MDMA is able to induce the same behaviour in an animal with totally different circuit architecture. It doesn’t even have the brain regions we think are important for social behaviour."

Ubergooroo 5 Sep 21
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That is fascinating. Did anyone else notice the little blurb about potential uses as a treatment for autism? Sounds like a solid idea to me.

I love that idea too!

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That sounds risky to me. I had heard ecstasy was a drug that ate holes in the brain?

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I know a lot of people who call it abuse when they hear of pet owners blowing pot into the faces of their dogs or cats to see them do silly things. I'm not sure how this is different, especially given the significantly different physiology between people and octopi. It sounds like they simply chose those animals for the benefit of immediately observable behavior, rather than necessarily the applicability of the treatment. I would be very interested in reading how this study was vetted for ethics.

Has turning octopi into sushi been vetted for ethics?

@WilliamFleming Do you equate chopping up an animal for food with doping an animal to see how it reacts to being high? Much of the time, research animals will be chosen because of similarities between species, but here it states that the reason for "very sophisticated behaviors". If octopi are "very distantly related to vertebrates", why were they chosen over apes or pigs, unless it was done for the 'cool factor.' You ever considered eating catnip to figure out why it affects cats or give dogs chocolate to see why it affects them differently than it does you?

@chalupacabre well it says all applicable California State and US Fish and Wildlife regulations,were met plus Ethical Considerations
Care of invertebrates, like O. bimaculoides, does not fall under United States Animal Welfare Act regulation, and is omitted from the PHS-NIH “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.” Thus, an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, a Committee on Ethics for Animal Experiments, or other granting authority does not formally review and approve experimental procedures on and care of invertebrate species, like O. bimaculoides, at the Marine Biological Laboratory. However, in accordance with Marine Biological Laboratory Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee guidelines for invertebrates, our care and use of O. bimaculoides at the Marine Biological Laboratory and at Johns Hopkins University generally followed tenets prescribed by the Animal Welfare Act, including the three ‘Rs’ (refining, replacing, and reducing unnecessary animal research).

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