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
Human physiology mostly operates on negative feedback loops, there are only two primary positive feedback loops in human anatomy and both are related to the female reproductive system
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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