How Would You Think Without a Brain

Studies in brainless slime molds reveal that they use physical cues to decide where to grow, thereby thinking without an actual brain.

Imagine thinking and navigating your surroundings without a brain. Is that possible? The answer may be "yes" as per research on slime molds, by the scientists at Wyss Institute at Harvard University and the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, published in the journal Advanced Materials.

The slime mold called Physarum polycephalum are amoeba-like organisms that can grow to be up to several feet long and help break down decomposing matter in the environment like rotting logs, mulch, and dead leaves. The interesting point to be noted is that the organism has no brain.

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‘Studies in brainless slime molds reveal that they use physical cues to decide where to grow, thereby thinking without an actual brain. The mechanosensation ability used by this simple brainless organism is amazingly similar to other species, including humans, that warrants a deeper understanding of our body.’

It has been found to use its body to sense mechanical cues in its surrounding environment and navigate through. The mold is seen to perform computations similar to what we call "thinking" to decide in which direction to grow based on that information.

"People are becoming more interested in Physarum because it doesn't have a brain but it can still perform a lot of the behaviors that we associate with thinking, like solving mazes, learning new things, and predicting events. Figuring out how proto-intelligent life manages to do this type of computation gives us more insight into the underpinnings of animal cognition and behavior, including our own," says first author Nirosha Murugan, a former member of the Allen Discovery Center who is now an Assistant Professor at Algoma University in Ontario, Canada.

Slimy Action without the Brain

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The study team allowed the Physarum specimens to grow in the lab by placing them in Petri dishes coated with a semi-flexible agar gel and placed either one or three small glass discs next to each other atop the gel on opposite sides of each dish. The growth patterns of the slime were then tracked in the dark over 24 hours.

Remarkably, the Physarum chose to grow toward the greater mass without first physically exploring the area. The team was determined to find out if the organism accomplishes this exploration of its surroundings before physically going there?

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When the mass was altered by stacking the same three discs on top of each other, the organism lost its ability to distinguish between the three discs and the single disc. It grew toward both sides of the dish at roughly equal rates, even though the three stacked discs still had greater mass.

The Calculated Move

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The factor contributing to their growth was then explored using computer modeling. The team explored how changing the mass of the discs would impact the amount of stress (force) and strain (deformation) applied to the semi-flexible gel and the attached growing Physarum.

It was found that the strain patterns the masses produced changed, depending on the arrangement of the discs. The Physarum were having the ability to physically sense the different arrangements of mass and make a calculated decision about where to grow based on the relative patterns of strain it detected in its environment.

The scientists suspected that the detection of these strain patterns was related to Physarum's ability to rhythmically contract and tug on its substrate to gain information about its surroundings.

"Our discovery of this slime mold's use of biomechanics to probe and react to its surrounding environment underscores how early this ability evolved in living organisms, and how closely related intelligence, behavior, and morphogenesis are. In this organism, which grows out to interact with the world, its shape change is its behavior. Other research has shown that similar strategies are used by cells in more complex animals, including neurons, stem cells, and cancer cells. This work in Physarum offers a new model in which to explore the ways in which evolution uses physics to implement primitive cognition that drives form and function," says the corresponding author Mike Levin, Ph.D., a Wyss Associate Faculty member who is also the Vannevar Bush Chair and serves and Director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University.

The study thereby demonstrates that mechanosensation used by this simple brainless organism is amazingly similar to what is seen in all species, including humans. Hence mechanical forces play as important a role in the control of cell behavior and development similar to what chemicals and genes do and mandating the need for even a deeper understanding of our body.

Source-Medindia

How Would You Think Without a Brain – Finds The Study!

Studies in brainless slime molds reveal that they use physical cues to decide where to grow, thereby thinking without an actual brain.