The entire body of a sea urchin is what researchers are now calling an “all-body brain,” with neurons that function as a brain throughout its anatomy.
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It’s true! I would collect them in a pail from the tidal pools as a child. I would crack them open with whatever I had available and eat them, and the halves would still be running around on the ground after I discarded the rest.
The parts of urchin, the remains, they would skitter around and bunch up in one corner of the yard trying to get away like they didn’t realize they’d been eaten yet even though there was nothing left inside.
I have…so many questions…
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These guys always made me feel uncomfortable. I would collect and eat them, and the remains would run away afterward.
Could you do me a favor? Since you know what you’re looking for, will you see if you can find any videos of this? I looked, but either my keywords are bad, or there just aren’t any. I’m assuming it’s bad keywords. That’s absolutely wild.
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Fedi-urchin
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Could you do me a favor? Since you know what you’re looking for, will you see if you can find any videos of this? I looked, but either my keywords are bad, or there just aren’t any. I’m assuming it’s bad keywords. That’s absolutely wild.
I tried. This isn’t a very good video, but you can kinda see it’s still trying to crawl away after it’s been eaten at several points. I might have had 20 or so in a pile fresh out of the water and they were much more active. I hope this helps.
I like the fat ones. The long ones don’t taste good.
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mmm… brainitalia…
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So they are basically an intellect devourer with spines?
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This is such a shit magazine. They are not “all brain”, its more like their brain is just scattered evenly throughout their body.
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I suspect that all animal cells think and have experiences. But neural cells are specialized.
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I tried. This isn’t a very good video, but you can kinda see it’s still trying to crawl away after it’s been eaten at several points. I might have had 20 or so in a pile fresh out of the water and they were much more active. I hope this helps.
I like the fat ones. The long ones don’t taste good.
I am deeply, deeply disturbed by this. Thank you for sharing!
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This is such a shit magazine. They are not “all brain”, its more like their brain is just scattered evenly throughout their body.
its called a nerve net for the most part. they dont have an actual brain per ce. thier nervous system is somewhat more complex than cnidarians.
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I suspect that all animal cells think and have experiences. But neural cells are specialized.
Depends on your definition of thinking. If by think you mean react to their environment and possibly have some form of chemically based memory, that seems possible. Hell they have to react to the environment to maintain homeostasis. Multicellular organisms are ultimately a kind of colony of unicellular organisms if you get right down to it.
If you mean actual cognition, definitely not. There’s an indisputable difference between reacting to stimulus and considering the cause of the stimulus and the second one needs a neutral network or something like it, it’s simply too complex… Probably.
I also don’t think it’s unreasonable that an organ could affect thought patterns aka personalities, but there’s a big, big difference between your brain’s specific chemical environment they are affecting and the memories it contains.
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Depends on your definition of thinking. If by think you mean react to their environment and possibly have some form of chemically based memory, that seems possible. Hell they have to react to the environment to maintain homeostasis. Multicellular organisms are ultimately a kind of colony of unicellular organisms if you get right down to it.
If you mean actual cognition, definitely not. There’s an indisputable difference between reacting to stimulus and considering the cause of the stimulus and the second one needs a neutral network or something like it, it’s simply too complex… Probably.
I also don’t think it’s unreasonable that an organ could affect thought patterns aka personalities, but there’s a big, big difference between your brain’s specific chemical environment they are affecting and the memories it contains.
The evidence of the mechanism of anesthetics on microtubules preventing consciousness makes me suspect that actual honest to god consciousness is phenomenon that arises from fundamentally intra-cellular, not inter-cellular mechanisms; that no more than a single cell is required to have a form of experience. Which is a potential I hate, but it’s the most consistent model I have.
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The evidence of the mechanism of anesthetics on microtubules preventing consciousness makes me suspect that actual honest to god consciousness is phenomenon that arises from fundamentally intra-cellular, not inter-cellular mechanisms; that no more than a single cell is required to have a form of experience. Which is a potential I hate, but it’s the most consistent model I have.
Microtubules are also just mechanically involved in synaptic firing. If you disrupt their chemistry you disrupt the ion transfer chains throughout the entire synapse. I’m not nearly read enough on the finer details on those mechanisms and definitely not the quantum theory you seem to be referencing to offer an expert opinion but I’m really inclined to go with Occam’s Razor on this one.
Who knows though, maybe you’re right, it certainly would explain some weird behaviors most microbiologists just kind of shrug off
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