A life of avoidance, detachment and relocation might not be suitable for all, but for the single-cell eukaryote Stentor roeseli, confirmation of this idiosyncratic behavior pattern has been a long time coming.
In a study appearing in Current Biology, researchers at Dartmouth College and Harvard Medical School hope to put to rest a century-old scientific debate by demonstrating that the low-level organism S. roeseli is capable of decision making. They also offer the video evidence to prove it.
In 1906, American biologist Herbert Spencer Jennings reported that Stentor roeseli exhibited complex behavior. In response to an irritating stimulus, Jennings said that S. roeseli engaged in four distinct behaviors--bending, ciliary alteration, contraction and detachment.
The news that the organism, which lacks a central nervous system, possessed sophisticated sensing and response mechanisms sent waves through the scientific community. The findings also played a key role in early scientific debates about animal behavior.
