Clues to human thought found in worm’s brain
September 10, 2010
Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory report that something resembling a cerebral cortex exists in the marine ragworm, a small creature with ancient roots that has not changed in hundreds of millions of years.
A marine ragworm. (Image: Ringeisen/European Molecular Biology Laboratory)
To conduct their study, Dr. Arendt and his colleagues used a technique called cellular profiling to determine what genes were turned on and off in the cells of the ragworm’s brain. This sort of profiling provides a molecular footprint for each cell.
Remarkably, the molecular footprint in certain parts of the ragworm’s brain, known as mushroom bodies, had a very similar footprint to the cerebral cortex.
[ New York Times ]
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Comments (1)
by LaboriousCretin
Ah LOL. Now we can add worm brain to lizard brain and monkey brain sub set’s for peoples psycology. Hehehe. Sorry I see the comical in this already. Superior A.I. is going to chew us up on many level’s, for the viral likenesses we potray on many level’s. Or the broken humans we are. Religions being net sum evil, human brains being incomplet, psycology of humans being so flawed, evolutional trait’s that got over looked, reflections and inflections humans can’t see due to difrent block’s. A truew zen master one set of super A.I. will be indeed. Preplexing to most humans it will be. Who or what will get the first super brain due to recognition of evolution of the brain structures and DNA modifications I am curious about though.