The cognitive cell: bacterial behavior reconsidered

Abstract

Research on how bacteria adapt to changing environments underlies the contemporary biological understanding of signal transduction (ST), and ST provides the foundation of the information-processing approach that is the hallmark of the ‘cognitive revolution,’ which began in the mid-20th century. Yet cognitive scientists largely remain oblivious to research into microbial behavior that might provide insights into problems in their own domains, while microbiologists seem equally unaware of the potential importance of their work to understanding cognitive capacities in multicellular organisms, including vertebrates. Evidence in bacteria for capacities encompassed by the concept of cognition is reviewed. Parallels exist not only at the heuristic level of functional analogue, but also at the level of molecular mechanism, evolution and ecology, which is where fruitful cross-fertilization among disciplines might be found.

Senomic view of the cell: SenomeversusGenome

“…Recently it is emerging that all cells [25] demonstrate basal cognition [8,14,16,23,26–33]. Indeed, it has been argued that life should properly be defined through the property of self-referential cognition [31,34].…”

“…Indeed, it has been argued that life should properly be defined through the property of self-referential cognition [31,34]. Furthermore, recent advances have also revealed that neuronal aspects and cognitive capacities are valid concepts for unicellular organisms too [14,16,22,35]. Even bacteria show sensory complexity and sensory-motor circuits between plasma membrane-based sensors and correspondent motor responses of their flagella modulated by previous experiences [14,36].…”

“…Furthermore, recent advances have also revealed that neuronal aspects and cognitive capacities are valid concepts for unicellular organisms too [14,16,22,35]. Even bacteria show sensory complexity and sensory-motor circuits between plasma membrane-based sensors and correspondent motor responses of their flagella modulated by previous experiences [14,36]. It has also been demonstrated that plants have complex sensory systems which feed into their adaptive behavior [37–39].…”

“…When so considered, the behavioral complexity of archaea, bacteria and diverse unicellular eukaryotes can be explained [14,18–21,72,73] In like manner, the intelligence of syncytial plasmodia Physarum polycephalum [16,74–76], as well as the intelligence of plants and their robust communicative/cognitive faculties can be sufficiently understood [8,77–82]. Thus, the Senome provides a background through which the basal cognitive capacities of the cell, can be explored along pathways toward the type of consciousness that is typically ascribed to animals, and eventually to ourselves.…”

“…This new science of feelings, emotions, qualia and consciousness must be able to tackle these issues from an evolutionary perspective [4–7,16,18–22]. Its further requirement is an explanation of the emergence of a variety of elusive biological phenomena in their hypothetical ancient proto-states at the level of the simplest unicellular organisms [7,14,16,22,23], such as proto-feelings, proto-emotions, proto-qualia, proto-consciousness [7,24] which could then be further engaged as complexation in multicellular organisms.…”