A study on adaptation mechanism of Physarum based on chemo-mechanical system

Abstract

Biological systems can adapt to dynamic environments by including both flexibility to environments and consistency of the whole system. In this paper, we attempt to clarify the mechanism of such autonomy of biological systems by developing the adaptation model of Physarum, which consists of endoplasmic, ectoplasmic and intermediate layers. In an ectoplasmic layer, the chemical system generates a spatial relationship in small time scale. In an endoplasmic layer, the mechanical system affects the chemical system in a large time scale. We assume that chemo-mechanical coupling system of two systems plays an important role in adaptation. Under these conditions, mutual interaction between the above chemical system and mechanical system is investigated. As a result, it is suggested that the chemical system is flexible and the mechanical system is consistent under a dynamic environment. In addition, we investigate spatio-temporal development of actual Physarum by making an image processing experimental system to check out the validity of our model.