To Understand How a Squid Changes Color, You Gotta Get Inside Its Head

(gentle electronic music)

If a wraith could be an animal,

it would definitely be a cephalopod like this cuttlefish

or this octopus.

Cephalopods can change their look so quickly

because the color comes from special cells

controlled by the brain,

so it's just a matter of firing electrical signals.

Squid also do this,

and now new research reveals how the brain

is set up to control the light show.

Scientists stimulated a squid's optic lobe

and found something peculiar.

Zap one area,

and the squid's mantle turns striped.

Zap another, and the head turns dark.

So different parts of the optic lobe

control different pattern components,

and by combining these components,

the squid can create more complex patterns

covering the entire body.

And with these words,

these spicy little cephalopods communicate

with each other for mating and fighting.

The researchers hope this is a first step

towards translating the language of the squid,

which probably sounds something like sex, sex, sex,

fight, fight,

sex, sex,

you know, the good things in life.

(gentle electronic music)