How to Read a Jellyfish's Mind (phys.org) 24
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have developed "a kind of genetic toolbox" for tiny one-centimeter jellfyfish, reports Phys.org. Specifically, the jellyfish "have been genetically modified so that their neurons individually glow with fluorescent light when activated."
Because a jellyfish is transparent, researchers can then watch the glow of the animal's neural activity as it behaves naturally. In other words, the team can read a jellyfish's mind as it feeds, swims, evades predators, and more, in order to understand how the animal's relatively simple brain coordinates its behaviors. A paper describing the new study appears in the journal Cell on November 24....
Rather than being centralized in one part of the body like our own brains, the jellyfish brain is diffused across the animal's entire body like a net. The various body parts of a jellyfish can operate seemingly autonomously, without centralized control; for example, a jellyfish mouth removed surgically can carry on "eating" even without the rest of the animal's body.
This decentralized body plan seems to be a highly successful evolutionary strategy, as jellyfish have persisted throughout the animal kingdom for hundreds of millions of years. But how does the decentralized jellyfish nervous system coordinate and orchestrate behaviors...? [T]hough the network of jellyfish neurons originally seemed diffuse and unstructured, the researchers found a surprising degree of organization that only became visible with their fluorescent system.
Ultimately the researchers say they've identified "patches" of neurons that work together, and they now want to study how various "modules" of neuron groups are coordinating.
Rather than being centralized in one part of the body like our own brains, the jellyfish brain is diffused across the animal's entire body like a net. The various body parts of a jellyfish can operate seemingly autonomously, without centralized control; for example, a jellyfish mouth removed surgically can carry on "eating" even without the rest of the animal's body.
This decentralized body plan seems to be a highly successful evolutionary strategy, as jellyfish have persisted throughout the animal kingdom for hundreds of millions of years. But how does the decentralized jellyfish nervous system coordinate and orchestrate behaviors...? [T]hough the network of jellyfish neurons originally seemed diffuse and unstructured, the researchers found a surprising degree of organization that only became visible with their fluorescent system.
Ultimately the researchers say they've identified "patches" of neurons that work together, and they now want to study how various "modules" of neuron groups are coordinating.
Re: The amplifier gave zero volts for hours (Score:2)
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So they basically created a Metroid? (Score:2)
Hopfully the gravity suit will not follow too long after.
Want to know what's on a jellyfish's mind? (Score:2)
Just let them talk. They'll tell you [imgur.com].
Missed opportunity... (Score:2)
Odds are they are just saying... (Score:1)
... "feed me" over and over again.
Mind reading of a jellyfish (Score:2, Funny)
The big question (Score:2)
If you program a biologically accurate (using our recently updated ideas of what that is) neural network and use the responses to trigger the inputs and back propagation, will the simulator converge on the jellyfish response (ie: the model actually now is biologically accurate) or remain as randomised as it was at the start (ie: our model is still missing key details of how neurons operate)?
If the former, the EU's Whole Brain Simulator has a fighting chance of producing useful results.
If the latter, there's
Re: (Score:2)
Artificial neural networks have bottom line nothing to do at all with a "real brain" or a jelly fish neuronal net.
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Indeed. And real neurons are really complex, probably too complex and arbitrary to be useful for producing Artificial Intelligence.
But understanding a jelly fish or a C Elegans would be a good start. They are still way beyond our understanding.
Personally, I do not believe that any brain packed with neurons working at sub millisecond speeds and programed by natural selection could ever be intelligent.
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At the moment, the question is one of how real neurons differ from the biologically accurate simulations out there. (Just to clarify, I'm talking about the kind of modeling described here: http://www.genesis-sim.org/GEN... [genesis-sim.org] and not the ultra-abstract NN software that typically gets talked about.)
When talking specifically about simulations that are intended to be biologically correct, it would seem to follow that one way you can determine what is left to do in such simulations is to look at neurons firing in
Re: (Score:2)
Real neurons are very complex. Many different types of synapses that are affected by all sorts of things. And the neurons in something like a jellyfish are tightly coupled to their environment. There is a lot more too it than the basic fire/reset cycle.
But simulating them is indeed a good way to test our understanding. If you could actually simulate how a jellyfish behaves that would be quite an achievement.
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Agreed.
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Simulating a whole brain.
I really wonder if that is once possible.
The basic research however is certainly interesting and astonishing.
Blah blah blah woke crap blah blah blah (Score:2)
No difference to the terrestrial version.
A lot of these are being found in Humans too (Score:2)
Quite a lot of such decentralized autonomous groups of neurons are been discovered in humans too, with fairly complex functions, which was earlier thought to be capable of just some extremely rudimentary stuff or just sensory /motor messaging.
Probably why we have phrases like gut feel, gut brain, muscle memory, references to spine / heart for behaviors or feelings
Many of these keep working even if your brain is barely working.
For eg most of the rabid cancel-culture slashdot posters when they hear Trump, Bit
Why biology is a "science" ... (Score:3)
FTA: " ...a jellyfish mouth removed surgically can carry on "eating" even without the rest of the animal's body."
Not sure how the qualifier "surgically" lessens the horror of what was done but overall this does highlight why biology isn't a science. In physics you apply first principles to develop a theory, test it numerically, and look for evidence. In biology, you just wander around blindly " ... seeing what happens if ..." precisely because there are no first principles. Not surprising really as a lot of students go into biology because of an aversion/incompetence at math but a love of science, and so they actually don't have the skill set to build numerical models and can only develop the most rudimentary theories. So they, figuratively, collect butterflies and pin them ... or pull the wings off.