--- title: Giving Ecstasy to Octopuses Taught Researchers Something Important About the Brain description: A new study shows that octopuses show social behavior when they take MDMA, also known as ecstasy or Molly. canonical: https://time.com/5403031/octopuses-mdma-study/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-21T17:53:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T07:55:02.732Z article:section: Health og:title: Giving Ecstasy to Octopuses Taught Researchers Something Important About the Brain og:description: The drug prompts social behavior — even hugging, a new study says og:url: https://time.com/5403031/octopuses-mdma-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt84638073d1ad6c0c/69893adfdb29871670260c22/octopus-ecstasy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4801 og:image:height: 2701 og:image:alt: California two spot octopus og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Giving Ecstasy to Octopuses Taught Researchers Something Important About the Brain twitter:description: The drug prompts social behavior — even hugging, a new study says twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt84638073d1ad6c0c/69893adfdb29871670260c22/octopus-ecstasy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Giving Ecstasy to Octopuses Taught Researchers Something Important About the Brain > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=137eca61-64c5-44d1-ae78-ce93f9a1712b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Michael Pollan on the Healing Power of Psychedelics [Watch (HLS stream): Michael Pollan on the Healing Power of Psychedelics](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Z7yskoOT.m3u8) (4:20)  _Published 2018-05-16. Author Michael Pollan explored the therapeutic properties of psychedelics for his latest book, "How to Change Your Mind." His research includes firsthand experiences with the drugs._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Sep 21, 2018 5:53 PM UTC Author Michael Pollan explored the therapeutic properties of psychedelics for his latest book, "How to Change Your Mind." His research includes firsthand experiences with the drugs.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Sep 21, 2018 5:53 PM UTC [A new study](https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822%2818%2930991-6) suggests that humans might have more in common with octopuses than it appears: they both respond to at least one [psychoactive drug](http://time.com/5278036/michael-pollan-psychedelic-drugs/) in a similar, sociable way. Scientists from Johns Hopkins University and the Marine Biological Laboratory on Cape Cod found that, just like humans, notoriously reserved (and sometimes violent) octopuses act friendly and social when they’re exposed to [MDMA](http://time.com/5295544/war-on-drugs-ptsd-mdma-rick-doblin/), otherwise known as ecstasy or Molly. That finding, published in _Current Biology_, is more than just a fun party fact: It suggests that octopus and human brains are fundamentally similar in some ways, meaning that researchers could feasibly use the marine creatures to learn more about the human brain. MDMA stokes euphoria in humans in part by increasing levels of the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. A close look at the octopus genome showed researchers that a protein involved in this process in humans looked very similar in the sea creatures, suggesting that “pharmacologically, we could predict MDMA should work in octopus in the way it does in humans,” study co-author Eric Edsinger, a research fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory, said in a statement. To test that hypothesis, the research team placed octopuses in an interconnected three-chamber tank meant to test sociability. The “social” chamber contained another octopus (sitting under an orchid pot full of holes, just in case fights broke out), while the “object” chamber contained a figurine of the _Star Wars_ character Chewbacca. Octopuses were placed in the center chamber and allowed to roam through the setup as they pleased for 30 minutes. Before they were dosed with MDMA, octopuses of both sexes tended to spend more time in the social chamber if the other octopus was female, but more time in the object chamber if it was male. After spending 10 minutes in a low-dose MDMA bath, however, octopuses were far more inclined to spend time with male octopuses next door, even reaching out to “hug” the pot they sat under. The results suggest that MDMA does, indeed, spur many of the same pro-social behaviors in octopuses as it does in humans, suggesting that serotonin has been regulating social processes since humans and octopuses evolved into distinct species some 500 million years ago. The researchers warn that the findings are preliminary and must be replicated — but they could someday open up a whole new avenue of research for scientists looking to learn more about the human brain and how it responds to substances like MDMA, the study says. ## Transcript I guess the biggest misconception people have about psychedelics is that these are drugs that make you crazy. And we now have evidence that that does happen sometimes, but in many more cases, these are drugs that can make you sane, or more sane. [ MUSIC ] If you ask people about what psychedelics, or LSD, they're gonna think about the Timothy Leary, this flamboyant psychology professor. Studying psilocybin and LSD and then telling everybody they should take it. I'm very glad to be discredited, I don't want credibility. I want incredibility. [ LAUGH ] The drugs kind of escape laboratory and were embraced by the counter culture and proved to be very disruptive to society [ MUSIC ] So you had this full scale moral panic that eventually doomed the research but what people don't know is that that's 60s episode was really one small chapter in a much longer story. Psycho drugs are one kind of another have been used by different societies for thousands of years. If you compare mental health care with any other branch of medicine infectious disease, cardiology, oncology there have been very few achievements. Mental health treatment has not lengthened the human life span. So we need some new thinking, we need some new ideas and psychedelics may well be that new idea. There's a really exciting field of research underway, right now, looking at psychedelics. Especially psilocybin, the ingredient in magic mushrooms, to help people deal with mental illness of various kinds. Addiction, depression, obsession, and the fear and anxiety that surrounds a terminal diagnosis. And the feeling among the scientist is that these chemicals allow us to essentially reboot the brain. All those kind of deep grooves that lock us into patterns of both thought and behavior are dissolved and temporarily suspended in a way that allows us to break those patterns. We're now in a different world. The adults now, many of them have experience of psychedelics, they're not gonna react in such a panicky way, I don't think. Many of the people in charge of our institutions, probably regulators at the FDA, people at the American Psychiatric Association, they have personal experience of psychedelics. And they're, I think, gonna bring a more rational, Attitude toward them. I learned that there is a thriving underground of psychedelic therapists. These are serious professionals but they're doing something illegal. And I was able to find my way into this. Community and after interviewing several of them I found a couple people I felt comfortable enough to entrust my mind to. This isn't doctors giving you a pill and sending you out into the world. You are, for a period of four or five hours, in a room that's decorated like a kind of cozy den or study, you're lying down on a couch, you have eye shades on. And headphones, which are playing a very carefully curated playlist, to make you go inside, to have an internal experience. And you're with two guides at all times. Some people are put in touch with childhood trauma. Some people have encounters with death and I mean, it can be very dark. But with the help of the guides, you use that material and try to understand it. So after the session, you always come back the next day and have what's called a period of integration. Where the guides, who are trained therapists, help you interpret what happened and figure out ways to put it to good use in changing your life. My best journey was this fairly high dose [ INAUDIBLE ] journey. I had with a guide. What was stunning about it was I did have an experience of ego disillusion. I reached a point where myself kind of fell apart into these paper post its. That just got scattered into the wind. I saw myself. And I know that sounds weird. Who's the I that saw myself, but there is this split in consciousness that happens. But I saw myself scattered to the wind, but I was all right with it and I learned a really important lesson in that moment, which is that I'm not identical to my ego. 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