Touch and the role of proprioception in learning

Abstract

The layman’s octopus is an animal that consists of arms. In amongst the arms, somewhere in the middle, is a head with almost human eyes; children and cartoonists usually forget about the body. In a way the laymen, children and cartoonists are right; the arms make the octopus. They comprise the greater part of the weight of the body and they contain most of the nervous system. Young (1963a) estimates that the nerve cords of the eight arms together carry some 3.5 × 10⁸ neurones, while the brain itself is composed of less than half of this number of nerve cells. Each arm is equipped with prehensile suckers, 200 or more in an animal of 500 g, arranged in two alternating rows.