finding

active

finding:tail-fragments-of-trained-planarians-retain-original-learned-information-with-memories-reimprinted-on-newly-developing-brains

Tail fragments of trained planarians retain original learned information, with memories reimprinted on newly-developing brains.

Empirical evidence that memories persist through regeneration; challenges substrate-dependence of identity.

Source paper

extracted_from

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

(2022) · Levin, Michael

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Claims (2)

claim

The Self is malleable and plastic; the subject of memories and preferences is not fixed but subject to radical change in real-time.
supports
Central to TAME; challenges monadic self theory through examples of metamorphosis, regeneration, and mind-body substitution.
Memories are not immutable markers of identity; they can be transferred between individuals and remapped onto new substrates.
supports
Evidence from planarian tail fragment training and metamorphosis suggests memory is substrate-independent process.

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.
Memory as transferable information substrate
members_of
Explores memories as messages and stigmergic traces transferable between agents across time and biological substrates, grounded in planarian regeneration experiments.

Concepts (2)

concept

Pattern Memory
supports
Stored representation of correct anatomical goal, stable yet rewritable by physiological experience; basis for morphospace navigation.
Plasticity of bodies and minds
supports
The capacity of cognitive systems to adapt to drastic body alterations within the lifetime of an agent; key to understanding mind-body relationship.

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 derived from tail fragments of trained worms retain original information after brain regenerationfinding0.898
Behavioral memories in planaria persist through complete brain regeneration, indicating movement of memory across tissues.
Planaria maintain memories and re-imprint them from tail fragments onto newly regenerating brains.finding0.879
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.finding0.859
Evidence that memory and anatomical form are tightly linked; information processing enables integration of behavioral and morphological change.
Planarian fragments regenerating from bioelectrically re-patterned tissue produce permanent two-headed phenotype, demonstrating transient bioelectric states can produce lasting morphological memory changes.finding0.839
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 regenerationfinding0.837
Planarian flatworms regenerate their entire brain and retain memories after head amputation (Shomrat & Levin and related work).finding0.835
Cited empirical result supporting persistence of self/memory through structural regeneration.
Planarian fragments regenerate with near 100% fidelity of anatomical structurefinding0.817
Planarians cut into pieces regenerate precisely what is missing and re-scale tissue to form complete worms.
Moths trained as caterpillars retain learned memories after metamorphosis despite near-total destruction and rebuilding of the brain (Blackiston et al.).finding0.816
Cited empirical result supporting the claim that memory persists through radical self-transformation.