O/T Slime Molds Show Surprising Degree of Intelligence

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Slime Molds Show Surprising Degree of Intelligence

A creature with no brain can learn from and even anticipate events.

by Barone

published online December 9, 2008

Discover Magazine - New York,NY,USA

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jan/071

Single-celled slime molds demonstrate the ability to memorize and

anticipate repeated events, a team of Japanese researchers reported

in January. The study [pdf] clearly shows " a primitive version of

brain function " in an organism with no brain at all.

In their experiment, biophysicist Toshiyuki Nakagaki of Hokkaido

University and colleagues manipulated the environment of Physarum

slime-mold amoebas (near right). As the cells crawled across an agar

plate, the researchers subjected them to cold, dry conditions for

the first 10 minutes of every hour. During these cool spells, the

cells slowed down their motion. After three cold snaps the

scientists stopped changing the temperature and humidity and watched

to see whether the amoebas had learned the pattern. Sure enough,

many of the cells throttled back right on the hour in anticipation

of another bout of cold weather. When conditions stayed stable for a

while, the slime-mold amoebas gave up on their hourly braking, but

when another single jolt of cold was applied, they resumed the

behavior and correctly recalled the 60-minute interval. The amoebas

were also able to respond to other intervals, ranging from 30 to 90

minutes.

The scientists point out that catching on to temporal patterns is no

mean feat, even for humans. For a single cell to show such a

learning ability is impressive, though Nakagaki admits he was not

entirely surprised by the results. After working with the slime mold

for years, he had a hunch that " Physarum could be cleverer than

expected. " The findings of what lone cells are capable of " might be

a chance to reconsider what intelligence is, " he says.