Every day, new information emerges about the brain, which has a fascinating working principle and still holds many secrets about how it works. Every new research on the brain by scientists brings us one step closer to understanding how the brain works.
The information obtained on how the brain works naturally reveals how much brain matter we need to perform some functions. A new study on worms, published in Current Biology, offers new clues as to how many neurons, or nerve cells, we need to make complex decisions.
The number of neurons required to make complex decisions may be only 302
It seems that the number of neurons required to make difficult decisions may only be 302. At least, that may be the case, according to the results of a study focusing on Pristionchus pacificus, a predatory worm that relies on its ability to bite to eat its prey or defend its food source.
Researchers who decided to examine the decision-making process on this worm species, instead of looking directly at neurons and cell connections for signs of decision-making, decided to use the behavior of P. pacificus, especially its biting abilities when faced with different types of threats. focused on her choice.
During the study, the team determined that another worm species, Caenorhabditis elegans, which is both prey and competitor of P. pacificus, is to bite to eat or bite to deter. He observed that he used two different strategies. Accordingly, P. pacificus, which prefers to bite to kill a larval C. elegans; when confronted with an adult C. elegans, it showed a tendency to bite to keep it away from food sources. This was little evidence of a change of strategy and a deliberate choice.
By observing where P. pacificus worms lay their eggs and how their behavior changes when a bacterial food source is nearby, the research team concluded that bite attacks on adult C. elegans were not an unsuccessful attempt to kill them, but rather that it was simply designed to drive them away. proved to be a strategy.
This research can play an important role in the development of artificial intelligence
Although it has been known for years that such decisions have been made by vertebrates and it is now customary, it is clear that worms do not He was not known to have enough brain power to strategize and make complex decisions by considering the pros, cons, and consequences of actions.
neuroscientist Kathleen Quach of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California noted that “Scientists have always assumed that worms were simple – when P. pacificus bites, we always thought it was for a single predatory purpose.” “In fact, P. pacificus is versatile and can use the same action, namely biting C. elegans, to achieve different long-term goals. I was surprised to find that P. pacificus could turn what seemed like a failed hunting into successful and targeted territoriality.” uses expressions.
When we consider that humans have as many as 86 billion neurons, the 302 neurons of P. pacificus may sound like an extremely small number. But from a biological point of view, this means that the underlying decision-making mechanism is a not-so-complex code. Therefore, this research may have an important role even in the development of artificial intelligence, in teaching a computer software to make independent decisions with as few programs and neural networks as possible.
“Even simple systems like worms have different strategies and they can choose between these strategies and decide what is better for them in a given situation,” said neurobiologist Sreekanth Chalasani from the Salk Institute for Biological Research. “It serves as a framework for understanding how it is received in more complex systems like humans.”
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