AUTHOR=Tani Iori , Yamachiyo Masaki , Shirakawa Tomohiro , Gunji Yukio P.

TITLE=Kanizsa illusory contours appearing in the plasmodium pattern of Physarum polycephalum

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

VOLUME=4

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2014.00010

DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2014.00010

ISSN=2235-2988

ABSTRACT=<p>The plasmodium of <italic>Physarum polycephalum</italic> is often used in the implementation of non-linear computation to solve optimization problems, and this organismal feature was not used in this analysis to compute perception and/or sensation in humans. In this paper, we focused on the Kanizsa illusion, which is a well-known visual illusion resulting from the differentiation-integration of the visual field, and compared the illusion with the adaptive network in the plasmodium of <italic>P. polycephalum</italic>. We demonstrated that the network pattern mimicking the Kanizsa illusion can be produced by an asynchronous automata-fashioned model of the foraging slime mold and by the real plasmodia of <italic>P. polycephalum</italic>. Because the protoplasm of the plasmodium is transported depending on both local and global computation, it may contain differentiation-integration processes. In this sense, we can extend the idea of perception and computation.</p>