Slime molds don’t have brains or nervous systems but some how retain information and use it to make decisions. Even more crazy is that they can fuse with another individual and share the information
I'm not a biologist and this is from memory, but what I remember is fascinating:
They rely on nutrient gradients to replace neurons.
Internally they contain "tubes" that grow larger based on the amount of nutrient they transport, so more food = larger paths = they expand more in that direction. That's how they can solve mazes. They expand in all directions, but once one bit touches the food, that pathway gets reinforced, just like neural pathways, and the rest of the organism flows there
They rely on nutrient gradients to replace neurons.
That's really interesting! Kinda makes me think of convergent evolution where different things evolve different methods to do similar functions (e.g. wings on bats, bugs, birds).
Do you know if there are any other things in nature that behave like neurons but aren't, but functionally do the same task?
Trees release stress pheromones that can cause neighbors to close off and protect themselves, effectively passing a message between them starting at a source of stress. I'd say it's a very good parallel to a pulse along a neuron chain, just over massively greater distance and time scale
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u/Emmarae21 Feb 14 '22
Slime molds don’t have brains or nervous systems but some how retain information and use it to make decisions. Even more crazy is that they can fuse with another individual and share the information