Epigenetic Learning in Non-neural Organisms

Overview

Journal J Biosci

Specialties Biochemistry
Biology

Date 2009 Nov 19

PMID 19920348

Citations 32

Authors

Simona Ginsburg

Eva Jablonka

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Learning involves a usually adaptive response to an input (an external stimulus or the organism's own behaviour) in which the input-response relation is memorized; some physical traces of the relation persist and can later be the basis of a more effective response. Using toy models we show that this characterization applies not only to the paradigmatic case of neural learning, but also to cellular responses that are based on epigenetic mechanisms of cell memory. The models suggest that the research agenda of epigenetics needs to be expanded.

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