Behavioral repertoires in an adaptive, network-building, slime mold

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Karen Alim
• Subject Area: Statistical Physics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Complex Systems, Soft and Fluid Matter, Biological Physics
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 563482424

The slime mold Physarum polycephalum morphs its body into a network that transports resources across the entire organism. Despite the lack of a central signal-processing center, network morphologies are adaptive to the slime mold's environment and show behavioral evidence of intelligence and memory. Yet, the mechanism underlying Physarum’s surprising behavior is unclear, particularly to which extent Physarum’s behaviors emerge from natural versus physical constraints of its network’s mechanics. Here, a collaborative work carried out a UCLA (USA) and TUM (Germany) will confront experimental recordings of Physarum’s behavior with theoretical models of its behavioral space constrained by its network architecture. The work hypothesizes that behaviors emerge from the superposition of a finite set of flow modes, that drive transport of resources, but also changes of network architecture. As flow modes are constrained by network architecture a self-organizing feedback loop arises. The work will gain mechanistic insight on how flow modes drive behavior by uncovering three subsequent objectives: 1. A single network supports only a small number of self-organized flow modes. Modes are selected by transduction of local signals, leading to changes in the mechano-rheology of the network. 2. Flow modes control changes in the network architectures, including vessel sprouting, strengthening and pruning. 3. Flow modes are coopted to initiate and sustain the migration of the whole organism. The work will generate mechanistic insight into mechanical behavior of cells by delineating the natural decision realm from emergent physical constraints.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: USA
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Marcus Roper, Ph.D.