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Error is the deviation of the obtained result from the true, expected value or the estimated central value. Errors are expressed in absolute or relative terms.
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A Prediction Error-driven Retrieval Procedure for Destabilizing and Rewriting Maladaptive Reward Memories in Hazardous Drinkers
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Somatic multicellularity as a satisficing solution to the prediction-error minimization problem.

Chris Fields1, Michael Levin2

  • 1Caunes Minervois, France.

Communicative & Integrative Biology
|August 16, 2019
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Multicellularity may have originated as unicellular organisms evolved to minimize environmental uncertainty by surrounding reproductive cells with protective, non-reproductive somatic cells. This transition represents a key evolutionary step in organismal complexity and information processing.

Keywords:
Ancestral genetic toolkitcellular information processingfree-energy principlemarkov blanketpercolation theoryur-metazoan

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Systems biology
  • Theoretical biology

Background:

  • Biological systems adapt to environmental changes through physiological, transcriptional, and behavioral adjustments.
  • Organisms at all levels strive to optimize predictive capabilities to minimize environmental surprise.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a novel perspective on the origin of multicellularity driven by the fundamental biological imperative to reduce environmental uncertainty.
  • To model the transition to multicellularity as a phase transition influenced by environmental threats.

Main Methods:

  • Mathematical modeling to simulate the emergence of multicellular bodies.
  • Conceptual framework interpreting somatic cells as a Markov blanket protecting reproductive cells.
  • Analysis of variational free energy transitions in biological systems.

Main Results:

  • Multicellular bodies can evolve when somatic cells shield reproductive cells from environmental lethality.
  • The transition to multicellularity can be viewed as a shift from environmental exposure to protection via a Markov blanket.
  • Key innovation involves arresting cell cycles for threat amelioration, with the nervous system evolving for long-distance control.

Conclusions:

  • The origin of multicellularity is linked to minimizing environmental uncertainty through somatic cell protection.
  • This framework offers a novel hypothesis for the evolution of animal bodies and connects organismal architecture to cellular information processing.
  • Cancer is proposed as an evolutionary escape of somatic cells from reproductive cell control.