Cephalopod intelligence

Cephalopod intelligence is a measure of the cognitive ability of the cephalopod class of molluscs. Intelligence is generally defined as the process of acquiring, storing, retrieving, combining, comparing, and recontextualizing information and conceptual skills. Though these criteria are difficult to measure in nonhuman animals, cephalopods are the most intelligent invertebrates. The study of cephalopod intelligence also has an important comparative aspect in the broader understanding of animal cognition because it relies on a nervous system fundamentally different from that of vertebrates. In particular, the Coleoidea subclass (cuttlefish, squid, and octopuses) is thought to be the most intelligent invertebrates and an important example of advanced cognitive evolution in animals, though nautilus intelligence is also a subject of growing interest among zoologists. The scope of cephalopod intelligence and learning capability is controversial within the biological community, complicated by the inherent complexity of quantifying non-vertebrate intelligence. In spite of this, the existence of impressive spatial learning capacity, navigational abilities, and predatory techniques in cephalopods is widely acknowledged. Cephalopods have been compared to hypothetical intelligent extraterrestrials, due to their independently evolved mammal-like intelligence. Cephalopods have large, well-developed brains, and their brain-to-body mass ratio is the largest among the invertebrates, falling between that of endothermic and ectothermic vertebrates. The nervous system of cephalopods is the most complex of all invertebrates. The giant nerve fibers of the cephalopod mantle have been widely used for many years as experimental material in neurophysiology; their large diameter (due to lack of myelination) makes them relatively easy to study compared with other animals. Unlike most other molluscs, all cephalopods are active predators (with the possible exceptions of the bigfin squid and vampire squid).