THIS animal can learn—despite not having a brain

According to recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, starlet sea anemones (Nematostella vectensis) are capable of quite sophisticated learning, even though they don´t have a brain.

Simple organisms can adapt to repeated exposure to the same stimuli, causing non-associative learning in the form of habituation or sensitization.

Not all animals have brains. Cnidarians like sea anemones and jellyfish only have a decentralized nerve net, so scientists assume they can only learn in non-associative ways.

Sea anemones have been discovered to have the ability to remember the connection between light and electric pulses, according to sources.

“This is exactly what is called associative learning,” says senior author, University of Fribourg neurobiologist Simon Sprecher.

“Proof that even animals without brains are able to display complex behavior thanks to their nervous system.”

Sprecher and colleagues from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and the University of Barcelona in Spain conducted classical conditioning experiments on starlet sea anemones with light and an electric shock.

Animals that received light and electric shock together during training adapted their behavior and reacted to light alone after conditioning.

They suggest this ability of cnidarians to learn is an example of “embodied cognition” and prompts research into the structure of memory in organisms that do not have a typical brain.

We know very little about the workings of the learning process in animals that have an apparently simple nervous system,” says Sprecher.

“So we have the necessary framework to push our research further.”

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