Wetware: A Computer in Every Living Cell

Lyon (2015) cites Bray (2009) for the claim that a bacterium can be compared to a parallel distributed processing network showing 'minimal cognition'. Lyon uses it to argue that features of bacterial signalling, such as the ultrasensitivity, stochastic switch-like behaviour and autoamplification seen in the B. subtilis σB circuit, are characteristic of neural networks. It is also cited with Bray's earlier work for the idea that signal-transduction systems might function as neural networks.

These properties—ultrasensitivity, stochastic switch-like behavior and the capacity for autoamplification—are characteristic of neural networks (Bray, 2009).

Lyon P, 2015 · The cognitive cell: bacterial behavior reconsidered · open at passage 30

the bacterium has been compared explicitly to a parallel distributed processing (PDP) network (Bray, 2009) that displays ‘minimal cognition’

Lyon P, 2015 · The cognitive cell: bacterial behavior reconsidered · open at passage 3

the idea began to circulate that the ST systems of a bacterial cell might function as a neural network (Bray, 1990, 1995, 2009; Hellingwerf et al., 1995)

Lyon P, 2015 · The cognitive cell: bacterial behavior reconsidered · open at passage 76