Octopuses are antisocial creatures, unless they’re on molly 🐙

5 Questions for Gul Dolen

When given MDMA, octopuses spent much more time on the social side of the tank with another octopus. They also showed playful behaviour like floating around as if they were dancing and even doing backflips. 

MDMA is believed to work by targeting part of the brain like the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and the default mode network. What’s interesting is that octopuses seemed to respond to the drug similarly as humans even though they don’t have these brain structures 🤔

This is why it needs to be easier to research these drugs – there’s still so much we don’t know!

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