Uni-cellular integration of complex spatial information in slime moulds and ciliates.

Single-celled organisms show a fascinating faculty for integrating spatial information and adapting their behaviour accordingly. As such they are of potential interest for elucidating fundamental mechanisms of developmental biology. In this mini-review we highlight current research on two organisms, the true slime mould Physarum polycephalum and the ciliates Paramecium and Tetrahymena.

Physarum inspires research beyond biomimetic algorithms: Reply to comments on "Does being multi-headed make you better at solving problems?".

We look at a recent expansion of Physarum research from inspiring biomimetic algorithms to serving as a model organism in the evolutionary study of perception, memory, learning, and decision making.

Does being multi-headed make you better at solving problems? A survey of Physarum-based models and computations.

Physarum polycephalum, a single-celled, multinucleate slime mould, is a seemingly simple organism, yet it exhibits quasi-intelligent behaviour during extension, foraging, and as it adapts to dynamic environments. For these reasons, Physarum is an attractive target for modelling with the underlying goal to uncover the physiological mechanisms behind the exhibited quasi-intelligence and/or to devise novel algorithms for solving complex computational problems. The recent increase in modelling studies on Physarum has prompted us to review the latest developments in this field in the context of modelling and computing alike.

Current reinforcement model reproduces center-in-center vein trajectory of Physarum polycephalum.

Vein networks span the whole body of the amoeboid organism in the plasmodial slime mould Physarum polycephalum, and the network topology is rearranged within an hour in response to spatio-temporal variations of the environment. It has been reported that this tube morphogenesis is capable of solving mazes, and a mathematical model, named the 'current reinforcement rule', was proposed based on the adaptability of the veins. Although it is known that this model works well for reproducing some key characters of the organism's maze-solving behaviour, one important issue is still open: In the real organism, the thick veins tend to trace the shortest possible route by cutting the corners at the turn of corridors, following a center-in-center trajectory, but it has not yet been examined whether this feature also appears in the mathematical model, using corridors of finite width.