Basal cognition

Notes on the paper On Having no Head: Cognition througout Biological Systems.

Here, we survey a wide-ranging literature on memory and sensory systems-based cognition in organisms (biological systems) lacking animal/human-type brains. Our goal is to acquaint readers interested in cognition with numerous aneural model systems in which this subject can be pursued, and to draw the attention of bench biologists working on those systems to cognitive, information-focused perspectives on the mechanisms they are studying.¹

Neurons (biological) optimized “cellular signaling modes” that existed before the central nervous system appeared. For examples, look into “somatic cellular networks”.

The paper is looking at “cognitive processes implemented in aneural contexts”.

Biological systems (somatic cellular networks) need to make decision with respect to possible activities. Evolutionary pressure to optimize decision making through:

• past history (memory)
• information processing (computation)

Decisions are made at levels below the full organism level (at the cellular and subcellular levels.)

Memory: “experience-dependent modification of internal structure, in a stimulus-specific manner that alters the way the system will respond to stimulus in the future as a function of its past.”²

References

Baluska, Frantisek. Levin, Micheal. “On Having no Head: Cognition throughout Biological Systems.” June, 2016. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00902.