John McCrone -- "There is .... evidence that the cytoskeleton could
serve as a primitive brain. Biologists have long been puzzled how a
simple single-celled animal, like the slipper-shaped paramecium, could
behave so intelligently when it has no nervous system. A paramecium is
surprisingly nimble as it swims about in pond-bottom detritus, twisting
in and out of tight spaces in search of its dinner. Somehow the
protozoan manages to respond swiftly to information coming in from a
light-sensitive eyespot and its touch-sensitive cilia to co-ordinate
its swimming action. Several biologists have speculated that the
cytoskeleton could serve as the communication and information
processing link needed to organise such relatively complex behaviour."
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