Amoebae anticipate periodic events.
When plasmodia of the true slime mold Physarum were exposed to unfavorable conditions presented as three consecutive pulses at constant intervals, they reduced their locomotive speed in response to each episode. When the plasmodia were subsequently subjected to favorable conditions, they spontaneously reduced their locomotive speed at the time when the next unfavorable episode would have occurred. This implied the anticipation of impending environmental change. We explored the mechanisms underlying these types of behavior from a dynamical systems perspective.
Saigusa
Tetsu
T
Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, N13 W8, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan.
Tero
Atsushi
A
Nakagaki
Toshiyuki
T
Kuramoto
Yoshiki
Y
D000818:Animals; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D010507:Periodicity; D016839:Physarum polycephalum / Q000502:physiology*