Even Organisms Without Neurons Are Capable Of Intelligence And Learning

I guess the conclusion of this study would be that "brains are overrated". I am waiting for the study that shows rocks are capable of feelings and then I think we can crown Peat a king :)

Brainless slime has displayed "an unmistakable form of learning"
Yellow Brainless Slime Learns to Avoid Caffeine

"...Additionally, the researchers found that the quinine-exposed slime when exposed to caffeine had to learn how to deal with the new compound, and vice-versa for the caffeine-exposed slime. This demonstrates stimulus specificity. “Our results point to the diversity of organisms lacking neurons, which likely display a hitherto unrecognized capacity for learning,” the researchers wrote."

 

Well if it's avoiding caffeine how smart could it be.

 

It avoided it just the first few times. Eventually, it learned to love it. Sort of like what the coffee/caffeine experience is for many people on the forum

 

Yeah, but how much does it love it and how does it take it, with sugar and milk?? or straight black?? Should we be afraid?? Will it run for President??

People Who Order Coffee Black Are More Likely To Be Psychopaths

 

We got it all wrong. It's not Jewish bankers.

Highly caffeinated slimes run things behind closed doors.

 

Do they have a central nervous system or some kind of nervous system?

 

They have no neurons of any kind. So no.

 

Have you heard about the guy who had only 10% of his brain left, becaus ehe had hydrocephalus as a child, and he still scored 118 on IQ tests??

Do You Really Need To Have A Brain?

Really amazing/disturbing (in a good way) stuff, I think cognition and consciousness are pulled from somewhere deeper than the brain itself...

 

Perhaps consciousness is an intrinsic quality of the universe that manifests itself in innumerable ways.

 

http://phys.org/news/2016-12-behavior-cell-fusion-non-neural.html

Direct transfer of learned behavior via cell fusion in non-neural organisms