Humans and octopuses have one thing in common - the drug ecstasy brings out social behaviour.
An American study has found the drug can make the asocial, solitary species more touchy-feely.
"I was absolutely shocked that it had this effect," neuroscientist Judit Pungor, who wasn't part of the research team, told NPR.
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Octopus brains are very different to that of humans, separated from us by 500 million years of evolution. Researchers say touch is rare for the sober animals.
"They have this huge complex brain that they've built, that has absolutely no business acting like ours does - but here they show that it does," said Dr Pungor.
Researchers at John Jopkins University believe it's because despite our differences, humans and octopuses have almost identical genes for a particular protein that binds serotonin to brain cells.
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At first, they gave the creatures too much.
"They really didn't like it. They looked like they were freaked out," said lead researcher Gul Dolen. "They were just taking these postures of super hypervigilance. They would sit in the corner of the tank and stare at everything."
So they lowered to the dose to something closer to what a human would take on a night out - and the animals began "hugging".
Though it's unclear if the touching was platonic, the discovery shows serotonin has been driving social behaviour for at least 500 million years.
The findings have been published in journal Current Biology.
Newshub.
