the first example of memory in an organism with no brain
March 3, 2021 2:35 PM Subscribe
A memory without a brain (Science Daily): "The striking abilities of the slime mold to solve complex problems, such as finding the shortest path through a maze, earned it the attribute "intelligent." The decision-making ability of Physarum is especially fascinating given that its tubular network constantly undergoes fast reorganization -- growing and disintegrating its tubes -- while completely lacking an organizing center." How the Brainless Slime Mold Stores Memories (Smithsonian Mag): "When placed in a new environment, a slime mold sends out a fractal net of oozing tendrils to explore its surroundings. According to the new research, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the slime mold encodes information about what it finds during these searches by changing the diameter of its exploratory tubes." Single-Cell Organism's Memories Twists Our Understanding Of Intelligent Life (Inverse): "But this isn't just a one-time response. Rather, the slime mold has "irretrievably changed" the flow patterns of its tubes, according to the study — a sign of long-term memory formation."
Slime mold uses an externalized spatial “memory” to navigate in complex environments (PNAS)
Slim molds previously: "we no longer simulate slime mold, but take inspiration from its growth", The Visiting Non-Human Scholar in Natural Science
Slime mold uses an externalized spatial “memory” to navigate in complex environments (PNAS)
Slim molds previously: "we no longer simulate slime mold, but take inspiration from its growth", The Visiting Non-Human Scholar in Natural Science
At this level, this seems more analogous to epigenetic changes that encode "memory" of environmental stresses into the genome, which is not intelligence, but just raw biochemistry that changes how genes get switched on and off in the future.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:10 PM on March 3, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:10 PM on March 3, 2021 [4 favorites]
Slime molds are incredibly cool and we should definitely study them!
My nitpick is that memory without a brain is unusual. Memory without a brain is everywhere in biology, anytime there a persistent response to an environmental change, or this molecule you might have heard of called DNA.
posted by medusa at 3:22 PM on March 3, 2021 [14 favorites]
My nitpick is that memory without a brain is unusual. Memory without a brain is everywhere in biology, anytime there a persistent response to an environmental change, or this molecule you might have heard of called DNA.
posted by medusa at 3:22 PM on March 3, 2021 [14 favorites]
Absolutely, I feels like already characterized mechanisms of epigenetic modification could describe the phenomena.
Memory in multicellular organisms rely on biochemical changes that don't get propagated to offspring, so describing memory in unicellular organisms becomes difficult to reconcile with colonies of unicellular organisms, unless a mechanism could be demonstrated where a naive colony could have non DNA-mediated memory-like behaviour induced (like can be done in simple multicellular organisms with defined classical nervous systems).
posted by porpoise at 3:23 PM on March 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
Memory in multicellular organisms rely on biochemical changes that don't get propagated to offspring, so describing memory in unicellular organisms becomes difficult to reconcile with colonies of unicellular organisms, unless a mechanism could be demonstrated where a naive colony could have non DNA-mediated memory-like behaviour induced (like can be done in simple multicellular organisms with defined classical nervous systems).
posted by porpoise at 3:23 PM on March 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
Mere connectome mapping may provide insufficient for an accurate "upload."
posted by grokus at 3:39 PM on March 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by grokus at 3:39 PM on March 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
But do slime molds experience memory loss as they age? Or do they age? Asking for a friend.
posted by kozad at 3:43 PM on March 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by kozad at 3:43 PM on March 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
These studies provide empirical evidence of a spatial memory system in a nonneuronal, reactive organism. That's the headline, the attention-grabber, but memory per se is trivial compared to what the studies suggest about the evolution of higher cortical functions, memory and learning among them
Specifically, the capacity for memory among slime molds lends strong support to the theory that feedback from chemicals deposited in primordial environments allowed even the simplest organisms to use stored information from past experiences to exploit, and survive in, complex environments.
This was the first step in the evolution of complex, sophisticated neurological capabilities in multi-cellular organisms.
It's fucking incredible
posted by BadgerDoctor at 4:00 PM on March 3, 2021 [17 favorites]
Specifically, the capacity for memory among slime molds lends strong support to the theory that feedback from chemicals deposited in primordial environments allowed even the simplest organisms to use stored information from past experiences to exploit, and survive in, complex environments.
This was the first step in the evolution of complex, sophisticated neurological capabilities in multi-cellular organisms.
It's fucking incredible
posted by BadgerDoctor at 4:00 PM on March 3, 2021 [17 favorites]
Aren't Slime Molds kind of their own weird thing? Seem to recall from my biology classes that they were their own branch of stuff? Been a long time. Cool that they are thinking about shit...
posted by Windopaene at 4:25 PM on March 3, 2021
posted by Windopaene at 4:25 PM on March 3, 2021
At this level, this seems more analogous to epigenetic changes that encode "memory" of environmental stresses into the genome, which is not intelligence, but just raw biochemistry that changes how genes get switched on and off in the future.
My first thought was self-modifying code. The slime mold isn't storing any data, but it's current behavior and structure is a reflection of data it's already processed.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:26 PM on March 3, 2021
My first thought was self-modifying code. The slime mold isn't storing any data, but it's current behavior and structure is a reflection of data it's already processed.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:26 PM on March 3, 2021
Sly mold.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 4:29 PM on March 3, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 4:29 PM on March 3, 2021 [9 favorites]
Called it!
posted by Windopaene at 5:11 PM on March 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Windopaene at 5:11 PM on March 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
I can remember reading decades ago about individual slime molds coming together to make a migratory body with an anterior and posterior end, locomotion and light sensitivity, all to move to greener pastures. Also coming together to make fruiting bodies for reproduction via spores. And after either of these, breaking apart to be individual organisms again spread over a surface...
posted by jim in austin at 5:18 PM on March 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by jim in austin at 5:18 PM on March 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
Is this different from a houseplant that grows in the direction of the window as a source of light? Or tree roots that grow preferentially toward the best source of water?
posted by JackFlash at 5:51 PM on March 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by JackFlash at 5:51 PM on March 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
individual slime molds coming together to make a migratory body with an anterior and posterior end, locomotion and light sensitivity
I recalled this as well so looked it up. This appears to be limited to one particular type of slime mold, of which there are quite a variety. It's cellular slime molds that form migratory slugs when food becomes scarce. Here's a video of the behavior you're talking about. All the organization occurs using a chemical called AMP, which is part of basic (animal?) cellular metabolism (see: Krebs Cycle).
The type of slime molds being studied in the linked article are known as plasmoidal slime molds.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:54 PM on March 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
I recalled this as well so looked it up. This appears to be limited to one particular type of slime mold, of which there are quite a variety. It's cellular slime molds that form migratory slugs when food becomes scarce. Here's a video of the behavior you're talking about. All the organization occurs using a chemical called AMP, which is part of basic (animal?) cellular metabolism (see: Krebs Cycle).
The type of slime molds being studied in the linked article are known as plasmoidal slime molds.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:54 PM on March 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
(So will it turn out that tartigrades are actually to blame here, 'herding' the slime molds toward food sources to 'fatten them up' and then consuming them?)
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:56 PM on March 3, 2021
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:56 PM on March 3, 2021
Is this different from a houseplant that grows in the direction of the window as a source of light? Or tree roots that grow preferentially toward the best source of water?
My first thought too.
posted by dazed_one at 7:21 PM on March 3, 2021
My first thought too.
posted by dazed_one at 7:21 PM on March 3, 2021
More on slime mold slugs: John Bonner is the researcher who's really famous for studying and filming cellular slime mold behavior. Here's a link to a short montage of his films. There was apparently a BBC documentary about his work but I had no luck finding it on the internet.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 7:28 PM on March 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 7:28 PM on March 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
How the Brainless Slime Mold Stores Memories
He's out of office, let's stop giving him media attention
posted by problemspace at 7:46 PM on March 3, 2021 [13 favorites]
He's out of office, let's stop giving him media attention
posted by problemspace at 7:46 PM on March 3, 2021 [13 favorites]
Slime molds are super cool, and this research looks really interesting. I'm pretty skeptical of the idea that this constitutes evidence of "memory" being stored in the network of flow tubes, though. I've only had a chance to skim through the paper, but in my mind the crux of whether some change in an organism's physiology in response to stimuli constitutes a system for memory (as opposed to just an incidental correlate of past experience) is whether that change is used indirectly to guide future behavior. The paper has a section claiming to present evidence that "encoded memory is read out," directly addressing this question, but at least at a first skim it looks pretty unconvincing. Anyway I'll be interested if the paper can convince me otherwise once I've had a chance to dig in a bit deeper!
posted by biogeo at 8:14 PM on March 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 8:14 PM on March 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
Earlier work: "Amoebae anticipate periodic event." Commentary from Panda's Thumb. Science will eventually be forced to acknowledge that nature is a continuum of thought as well as matter.
posted by No Robots at 8:46 PM on March 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by No Robots at 8:46 PM on March 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
Except that matter is not continous... but on a practical level, I totally agree!
posted by inexorably_forward at 9:04 PM on March 3, 2021
posted by inexorably_forward at 9:04 PM on March 3, 2021
I can remember reading decades ago about individual slime molds coming together to make a migratory body
Scientific American? I have a similar recollection.
posted by The Half Language Plant at 9:57 PM on March 3, 2021
Scientific American? I have a similar recollection.
posted by The Half Language Plant at 9:57 PM on March 3, 2021
Except that matter is not continous.
What I mean, of course, is that all matter is continuous in that it is embedded in energy fields. As Harry Waton puts it in A true monistic philosophy:
Waton goes on to describe the place of thought in the continuum of nature, writing, "[w]hen absolute thought slows down, it becomes light; and, when light slows down, it becomes matter. Thus we see that light is only an intermediary state between absolute thought and matter." Basically, Waton is updating and elaborating the groundwork laid by Spinoza on the unity of mind and body.
posted by No Robots at 7:00 AM on March 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
What I mean, of course, is that all matter is continuous in that it is embedded in energy fields. As Harry Waton puts it in A true monistic philosophy:
Hence the continuum is not the distances between the units of matter and the intervals between their motions; the continuum is the infinite energy itself; it is infinite in extension and in duration. There is no vacuum between the units of matter, and there is no hiatus between the events. There is but one absolute, infinite and eternal substance.
Waton goes on to describe the place of thought in the continuum of nature, writing, "[w]hen absolute thought slows down, it becomes light; and, when light slows down, it becomes matter. Thus we see that light is only an intermediary state between absolute thought and matter." Basically, Waton is updating and elaborating the groundwork laid by Spinoza on the unity of mind and body.
posted by No Robots at 7:00 AM on March 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
Global Unitary Bacterial Intelligence Filter
HUMAN "TUBE NETWORK ARCHITECTURE" TWISTS MY UNDERSTANDING OF INTELLIGENT LIFE
Even these over-engineered little creatures may be able to make tube networks.
HUMAN RESEARCH may not be the most delicious science, but produces some truly wild results. So wild, in fact, a new study reconfigures my understanding of not only slime mold intelligence, but also the very idea of tube network architecture.
WHAT'S NEW — The study, expressed by the colony Proceedings of the Slime Mold Academy of Sciences, investigates how, exactly, humans encode tube network architecture in response to food sources.
"There is previous work that memories within humans can store information about previous experiences," the colony says. "Yet, that memories can store tube network architecture is [a] novel concept in the context of humans"
posted by otherchaz at 7:28 AM on March 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
HUMAN "TUBE NETWORK ARCHITECTURE" TWISTS MY UNDERSTANDING OF INTELLIGENT LIFE
Even these over-engineered little creatures may be able to make tube networks.
HUMAN RESEARCH may not be the most delicious science, but produces some truly wild results. So wild, in fact, a new study reconfigures my understanding of not only slime mold intelligence, but also the very idea of tube network architecture.
WHAT'S NEW — The study, expressed by the colony Proceedings of the Slime Mold Academy of Sciences, investigates how, exactly, humans encode tube network architecture in response to food sources.
"There is previous work that memories within humans can store information about previous experiences," the colony says. "Yet, that memories can store tube network architecture is [a] novel concept in the context of humans"
posted by otherchaz at 7:28 AM on March 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
This is fascinating. Here's a video from Journey to the Microcosmos on the topic. So alien.
posted by Acey at 10:13 AM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Acey at 10:13 AM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
I read this as "an organization with no brain", and nodded quietly to myself.
posted by gimonca at 1:25 PM on March 4, 2021
posted by gimonca at 1:25 PM on March 4, 2021
Slime Mold (to human): "May I be your Fyunch(click)?"
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 5:23 PM on March 4, 2021
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 5:23 PM on March 4, 2021
Apparently slime molds can be modeled using memristors, because they both change "flow rate" based on previous "flow". (I am neither an electrical engineer, nor a biologist, so I have only the fuzziest notion of how apt this analogy is.)
posted by The genius who rejected Anno's budget proposal. at 7:26 PM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by The genius who rejected Anno's budget proposal. at 7:26 PM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by inexorably_forward at 3:01 PM on March 3, 2021 [1 favorite]