I have decided to change the title of this blog to “conscious cells”. Under this I will discuss how we can study apparently complex behaviours of cells from cognitive science perspective.
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Conscious cells
How cells think? How do we know? Cognitive science might help.
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New theme for this blog
- Date:
- Sunday, 30 Mar ch 2008 - 15:29 GMT
I propose to consider a single cell as a “conscious” entity which is able to perceive external environment, integrate the perceptions and reach decisions. The concept of cell consciousness asserts that the genome only provides molecular designs and the behaviour of the cell as a whole is determined by molecular interactions in higher order. Namely, genes, proteins and all other molecules within a cell (e.g. lipid membrane) will be involved in the cell consciousness, which should be correlated to their spatial and temporal patterns.
Unlike previous ideas of single cell consciousness which considered only neuronal cells, I consider cells of any kind, such as skin cells or bacteria, have consciousness with varying degree of complexity. I understand this sounds odd to many people but hopefully I can provide enough evidence to prove my point.
Last updated: Sunday, 30 Mar 2008 - 15:29 GMT
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Comments
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Have you read the short story (later a novel) by Greg Bear, entitled Blood Music?
I agree 100% with your idea.
The most important question to address in this regard, I believe, is the following. How do we quantify information processing in biological systems?
I have been trying to answer this question for a long time. Dennis Brays seminal paper “Protein molecules as computational elements in living cells” was a starting point for me. I worked with Jim Austin at York exclusively on this problem for a short time – Although I have lots of ideas, I have no concrete answers… I would love to know what you think.
:D
Memory in Microbes: Quantifying History-Dependent Behavior in a Bacterium
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0001700
Dear Dan, thanks for the link. It is an interesting paper, because it makes me think what cellular memory means. For example, if you scratch your skin, you can feel something several seconds after the stimulus. Does that mean the skin has “memory”? I don’t think so.