Ingrid Fadelli is a writer for the website Phys.org.
Neural mechanisms underpinning learning have been the focus of many researchers. Some vital aspects of these mechanisms have been revealed by studies.
Jeremy Gunawardena, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, introduced a new perspective on learning that combines cognitive psychology with biological observations. His paper highlights some aspects of learning that are different to computers and machines.
Jeremy Gunawardena, one of the researchers, said that his interest in learning came from a previous study in which they showed that the single-cell protozoan, Stentor roeseli, exhibits a complex hierarchy of avoidance behaviors. The behavior was first described by an American Biologist in 1900.
Gunawardena and his colleagues have shown that the findings were correct. They discovered that a single cell is capable of more complex learning behavior than had been thought possible.
Gunawardena collaborated with a colleague at Harvard, Sam Gershman, who conducted research on the mechanisms of learning. They looked at how learning happens in single cells.
Gunawardena's survey paper was the result of his collaboration with Sam Gershman. To suggest a definition of learning in information-theoretic terms that was not restricted to animals like us and to set out the evidence from various domains in biology for the existence and significance of learning outside the nervous system was the main objective of the project.
In his recent paper, Gunawardena describes learning as a broad and universal process that covers all living systems. He thinks that a description and characterization of this process could inform research. Adding to existing theoretical perspectives could greatly contribute to the field of systems biology.
According to Gunawardena, cells are thought of as complex molecular machines. The idea that cells are capable of forming internal models of their external environments and using those models to guide their behavior gives them a form of 'agency' that most machines don't. If we want to exploit cells in a therapeutic way, unraveling these internal models is very useful.
The interesting ideas introduced by Gunawardena could provide a new perspective on how organisms learn and survive. T cells, crucial components of the immune system, may be able to learn from the stimuli they come in, according to several studies.
Gunawardena said that they need to show that this perspective is real by doing the experimental work. We are focusing on one of the simplest forms of learning, habituation, which is observed remarkably widely in biology, and which exhibits some characteristic properties, despite vastly different underlying mechanisms. We don't have a compelling explanation of how habituation works at the molecular level, which is what we are trying to do now.
More information: Jeremy Gunawardena, Learning Outside the Brain: Integrating Cognitive Science and Systems Biology, Proceedings of the IEEE (2022). DOI: 10.1109/JPROC.2022.3162791 Journal information: Proceedings of the IEEEThere is a science network.
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