Speaker
Description
Across living systems, oscillations support coordination, information flow, and decision making, from neural rhythms to calcium signaling in single cells. While most studies focus on organisms with nervous systems, growing interest concerns how similar abilities arise in non-neural organisms. The unicellular slime mold Physarum polycephalum is a key example, exhibiting decision-like behaviors including maze solving, network formation, and exploration–exploitation trade-offs. However, existing models describe either large-scale tube adaptation or local mechanochemical oscillations and therefore do not explain how intracellular oscillations generate whole-cell behavior.
We present a mechanistic model linking intracellular oscillations to behavior by coupling a self-sustained calcium oscillator to active pressure, fluid flow, and morphology. In one spatial dimension, reaction–diffusion dynamics drive pressure and tube radius changes, reproducing contraction waves and stimulus-induced symmetry breaking. We extend the model to two spatial dimensions using a phase-field formulation in which calcium-regulated tension drives cell deformation and migration.
The model reproduces key cell-level behaviors including exploration–exploitation trade-offs and efficient transport network formation. Our results show nonlinear feedback between intracellular oscillations and mechanical deformation generates complex behavior in a unicellular organism without neurons or centralized control.
