finding

active

finding:planarian-fragments-regenerate-with-near-100-fidelity-of-anatomical-structure

Planarian fragments regenerate with near 100% fidelity of anatomical structure

Planarians cut into pieces regenerate precisely what is missing and re-scale tissue to form complete worms.

Source paper

extracted_from

Technological Approach to Mind Everywhere: An Experimentally-Grounded Framework for Understanding Diverse Bodies and Minds

(2022) · Michael Levin

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Claims (1)

claim

Morphogenesis is a result of collective activity where cells cooperate toward a specific, invariant target morphology, exhibiting goal-directedness.
supports
Frames developmental biology as an instance of basal cognition.

Communities (3)

community

Bioelectric memory & morphogenetic identity
members_of
Gap junctions and bioelectric signals encode body-plan and memory patterns across radical biological transformation.
Bioelectric control of planarian morphogenesis
members_of
Transient bioelectric manipulation persistently alters head number and patterning despite wild-type genetics in planaria.
Bioelectric code and morphological memory in planarians
members_of
Studies of how ion channel bioelectric patterns encode anatomical information independent of genetics, enabling regeneration fidelity and behavioral memory preservation across complete body regeneration.

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

Planarians maintain high regenerative fidelity despite genetic heterogeneity and chromosomal variationfinding0.855
Planarian fragments regenerating from bioelectrically re-patterned tissue produce permanent two-headed phenotype, demonstrating transient bioelectric states can produce lasting morphological memory changes.finding0.849
Key evidence that morphogenetic memories are stored in bioelectric circuits and are rewritable via transient voltage state modifications; memory persists across multiple regeneration cycles.
Memory retention in planarian tail fragment regenerationfinding0.844
Planarians derived from tail fragments of trained worms retain original information after brain regenerationfinding0.841
Behavioral memories in planaria persist through complete brain regeneration, indicating movement of memory across tissues.
Modification of cell-cell communication during planarian regeneration causes genetically-normal fragments to produce heads appropriate to other species (Emmons-Bell et al. 2015, Sullivan et al. 2016)finding0.832
Shows that morphological attractors can be switched via physiological cues, revealing the navigation of morphospace by collectives.
Tail fragments of trained planarians retain original learned information, with memories reimprinted on newly-developing brains.finding0.817
Empirical evidence that memories persist through regeneration; challenges substrate-dependence of identity.
Planaria maintain memories and re-imprint them from tail fragments onto newly regenerating brains.finding0.816
Example of memory dynamics during extreme regeneration.
Trained planarian flatworms regenerating new heads retain memory of learned behaviors, with behavioral engrams imprinted on newly formed brain tissue.finding0.805
Evidence that memory and anatomical form are tightly linked; information processing enables integration of behavioral and morphological change.