Recent writing on cell memory

> Planaria regenerate complete new heads after amputation, and salamanders also regenerate their brain after region-specific ablation. Insects tear down their existing CNS [Central Nervous System] and produce one with a different architecture, in the journey from a caterpillar to a butterfly. 

> Neural-like computation, decision-making, and memory have been reported well beyond the traditional CNS including sperm, amoebae, yeast, and plants. These appear to be mediated by well-conserved, ubiquitous mechanisms that appear to be also involved in neural information processing, such as cytoskeleton and electrical net-works. Single somatic cells perform subtraction, addition, low- and band-pass filtering, normalization, gain control, saturation, amplification, multiplication, and thresholding. It is becoming clear that neural networks have no monopoly on such functions, and indeed fascinating examples of memory and neural-like dynamics have been found in the immune system, bone, heart, and physiological disorders such as diabetes.

> Despite the availability of model systems tractable to both behavioral analysis paradigms and molecular genetics of pattern regulation, this area has not received focused attention and remains fertile ground for new investigation. This novel interdisciplinary area, at the intersection of behavioral neuroscience and molecular developmental biology, raises unique challenges both in terms of novel theory that needs to be developed and new approaches at the bench. The impact of significant progress in this area would be huge, in terms of implications for the basic understanding of how mental content is encoded in cellular structures, the design of new regenerative therapies for radical brain repair in medical contexts, and the engineering of biologically-inspired computational media. 

The stability of memories during brain remodeling: A perspective (2015)
Douglas J Blackiston, Tal Shomrat & Michael Levin 
Communicative & Integrative Biology, 8:5
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19420889.2015.1073424

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html