Physarum slime mold demonstrates learning and decision-making in absence of neurons, including crossing noxious chemical barriers for reward and problem-solving with inert objects.

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• The huge chemical complexity within each synapse suggests that neural models of cognition that refer only to changing weights of synaptic connections and ignore sub-neural chemistry are probably ignoring some of the most important explanatory mechanisms in brains.claim0.749
  Sloman's critique of mainstream neural network theories.
• Minds are not tightly bound to specific architectures but readily mold to changes in genomic defaults and material substrate.claim0.745
  Central claim supporting TAME's framework: evidence of cognitive flexibility across diverse embodied systems.
• There is no privileged material substrate for Selves; cognition can arise in neurons, single cells, plants, tissues, swarms, and engineered systems.claim0.744
  Second foundational pillar of TAME; supports basal cognition and rejects brain-centrism.
• Many kinds of chemical pathways, not just cells or neurons, can exhibit six different types of learning, suggesting representational time is exploited broadly across living subsystems.hypothesis0.739
  Supports the gradualist view of representational time's emergence.
• Physical systems are more constrained in learning abilities than in silico neural networks due to locality requirements, but this mirrors biological learning constraints and offers robustness benefitsclaim0.737
  Core theoretical claim establishing that locality constraints in physical learning are not fatal—they reflect biological precedent and provide advantages like robustness and scalability
• If sub-neural chemical dynamics are crucial for cognition, then neural models ignoring them will fail to capture key cognitive phenomena.hypothesis0.737
  Sloman's implicit hypothesis behind his critique of synaptic weight-only models.
• Trained planarian flatworms regenerating new heads retain memory of learned behaviors, with behavioral engrams imprinted on newly formed brain tissue.finding0.737
  Evidence that memory and anatomical form are tightly linked; information processing enables integration of behavioral and morphological change.
• Some visual illusions that plague vertebrate nervous systems are recapitulated in collective intelligences such as ants.claim0.734
  Suggests deep commonalities between neural and swarm cognitive processing.