No Brain Is Required When It Comes To Thinking

We’ve probably all been told at least once, “use your head!” The brain, of course, is presumed to be analytical and thoughtful, the be-all end-all source of our mind, the control center of our body movements, our capacity to heal ourselves, and even our moral conscience, and consciousness. But what if our brain is more of a processing plant that receives messages from our tiniest cells and distributes them to their respective locations—a middle man so to speak. And what if those tiny cells store our memory?

In this article from Scientific American, we are introduced to the notion that the mind is everywhere: “In recent years interest in basal cognition has exploded as researchers have recognized example after example of surprisingly sophisticated intelligence at work across life’s kingdoms, no brain required.  For medical specialists, there are tantalizing hints of ways to awaken cells’ innate powers of healing and regeneration.”

According to this article, “Researchers in this burgeoning area have spotted hallmarks of intelligence—learning, memory, problem-solving—outside brains as well as within them.”

One of those researchers, Josh Bongard, who’s in charge of the Morphology, Evolution, and Cognition Labratory at the University of Vermont, puts it plainly: “It’s clear that the body matters, and then somehow you add neural cognition on top. It’s the cherry on the sundae. It’s not the sundae.”

Read the full article in Scientific American.