Karen Alim in her laboratory. Image: Bilderfest / TUM
Karen Alim in her laboratory. Image: Bilderfest / TUM How a single cell slime mold makes smart decisions without a central nervous system - Having a memory of past events enables us to take smarter decisions about the future. Researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now identified how the slime mold Physarum polycephalum saves memories - although it has no nervous system. The ability to store and recover information gives an organism a clear advantage when searching for food or avoiding harmful environments. Traditionally it has been attributed to organisms that have a nervous system. A new study authored by Mirna Kramar (MPI-DS) and Prof. Karen Alim (TUM and MPI-DS) challenges this view by uncovering the surprising abilities of a highly dynamic, single-celled organism to store and retrieve information about its environment. The slime mold Physarum polycephalum has been puzzling researchers for many decades.
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