Chung, W., Kurniawan, N.D. and Marshall, N.J. iScience 23, 100816 (2020)

Ever more detailed brain maps are in the works for a number of different model organisms, from worms and flies to mice and marmosets. Researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia have gotten started on such a resource for another animal: the bigfin reef squid, Sepioteuthis lessoniana.

Others have looked at the neuroanatomy of various cephalopods before via gross anatomy and histology, but Chung et al. are approaching the brain with a mix of those classic techniques and a more modern technology adapted from vertebrates: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Though still a work in progress to fully map all the connections—the reef squid’s connectome rivals that of the mouse—the MRI effort offers a fresh look at different regions of the unique cephalopod brain, including those neural networks involved in vision and camouflaging.