Smart behavior of true slime mold in a labyrinth

Even for humans it is not easy to solve a maze. But the plasmodium of true slime mold, an amoeba-like unicellular organism, has shown an amazing ability to do so. This implies that an algorithm and a high computing capacity are included in the unicellular organism. In this report, we discuss informa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Research in Microbiology 2001-11, Vol.152 (9), p.767-770
Main Author: Nakagaki, Toshiyuki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
amoeba
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Maze Learning
Microbiology
morphogenesis
Morphology, structure, chemical composition
Mycology
Physarum
Physarum - cytology
Physarum - growth & development
Physarum - physiology
Physarum polycephalum
rhythm
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Even for humans it is not easy to solve a maze. But the plasmodium of true slime mold, an amoeba-like unicellular organism, has shown an amazing ability to do so. This implies that an algorithm and a high computing capacity are included in the unicellular organism. In this report, we discuss information processing in the microorganism to focus on the issue as to whether the maze-solving behavior is akin to primitive intelligence.
ISSN:0923-2508
1769-7123
DOI:10.1016/S0923-2508(01)01259-1