Exactly how this memory was retained and recalled remains unclear.

From the mechanistic view of modern science there can only be one answer;
"help unlock the secrets of how memories can be encoded in living tissues"
Rupert Sheldrake suggests the "mind" is not necessarily in the brain.
http://www.sheldr...morphic/

Is it possible these worms are like cantdrive85 and have their brains in their asses?

Exactly how this memory was retained and recalled remains unclear.

From the mechanistic view of modern science there can only be one answer;
"help unlock the secrets of how memories can be encoded in living tissues"
Rupert Sheldrake suggests the "mind" is not necessarily in the brain.

The mind like any quantum computer doesn't contain all of it's states in our classic world. That is basic quantum mechanics. What we are witnessing is elaborate mechanisms like the brain creating long-lasting structures in alternate worlds and accessing them by means we have yet to discover. Structure is the only thing that exists. Particles are simply transient states, the quantum vacuum being one example. Even nothing has structure

I'm wondering if, well, the way human nervous reflexes can short-circuit (as in reacting to a sharp pain or burn) has any bearing in this. The "brain" might have grown out of a need to process data close to the source (the eyes/forward senses) and "memory" instead stored in most of the rest of the system of tissue in the form of "remembered" action and response.

Kind of like using the wiring in a home to store details about what is turned on when rather than a central controller.

I notice they employed a periodogram for analyzing mass correlations. I enjoy that tool and I think it's underused in biology and climate modeling

The mind like any quantum computer doesn't contain all of it's states

The mind isn't a quantum computer. Neurons are way too large to be affected by changes in quantum states. At that size we're dealing with classical entities.

As for the article: That something can regenerate its brain is already pretty freaky.
The notion that previously trained muscle groups will continue to respond favorably to the environment they have been trained for seems less surprising (still: cool experiment)

If you have ever done any sports that require quick reactions you will know that there is such a thing as 'muscle memory' - which works faster than the cognitive loop via the brain. We DO have nerve cells in the muscles which aren't that dissimilar, functionally, from neurons. Some, like the patella reflex everybody should be familiar with from doctors' visits, bypass the brain and go via a vertebral loop. That the connectivity of such systems isn't static seems plausible.

The mind like any quantum computer doesn't contain all of it's states

The mind isn't a quantum computer. Neurons are way too large to be affected by changes in quantum states. At that size we're dealing with classical entities.

While it is speculation at the moment, it has been suggested that unlike Schrödinger's cat--which has definite, macroscopic states which experience decoherance in response to the environment--cells may be able to exist in a superposition of two or more states which can not easily be differentiated. Cells which are about to make a "decision" like initiating cell death or reproduction (or, I would guess, neuron cells about to fire) might, if the speculation is right, exist in both a state of "just made the decision and about to initiate" as well as a state of "haven't quite committed yet".

They are discovering methods of creating macroscopic quantum systems as well as exploring quantum phenomena in biological systems like photosynthesis.

This example illustrates, it has no meaning to give the scientists money for research without applications, because they will forget it and they will repeat it again after few years.

That's not what I see at all. This, instead, appears to ask what the role of the brain is, if apparently learning can take place at the level of the body. What is the brain for? What was it for originally? That's an entirely different question from the previous experiments with planaria, and done with different tools and methods.

The mind like any quantum computer doesn't contain all of it's states

The mind isn't a quantum computer. Neurons are way too large to be affected by changes in quantum states. At that size we're dealing with classical entities.

That's a classic dogma popularized in the 80s and before. You can read articles here documenting researchers building entangled systems a kilometer or longer. Macroscopic boson particles the size of a room have been made for over 20 years. The outer electron orbitals in a uranium atom extend out near Jupiter. Photons "experience" the world as 2D as they take no time to travel along their world lines: they don't experience depth. The brain drives and is driven by electromagnetic coupling and this is the engineering basis for new devices

You can read articles here documenting researchers building entangled systems a kilometer or longer.

...made up of two photons (not even atoms) under VERY special/isolated circumstances.
And the systems are kilometers APART - not kilometers long.

A typical human cell has 100000000000000 (10E14) atoms. That is way, way, WAY beyond any size class where individual quantum effects matter. Singular quantum events (which do make a difference on the order of individual atoms) even out over such large numbers very quickly.
It's like tossing coins:
Is there unpredictability to the average outcome in an individual coin toss? Yes.
In 10? Some.
In 100? Not so much.
In 10E14? So little that you'd have to wait several lifetimes of the universe until you can expect to get one neuron (amongst the billions in a brain) to fire in an unexpected manner due to quantum effects (i.e. at odds with classical predictions).

This example illustrates, it has no meaning to give the scientists money for research without applications, because they will forget it and they will repeat it again after few years.

Again your ignorance of anything scientific shows. Have you ever read any paper in your life? Seriously: The first section of EVERY paper is the state-of-the-art section where they recap what is already known.
Pick a paper at random. Any paper at all ever written in any scientific field.

This is the FIRST thing you do in research: See what has already been published. This involves reading hundreds of papers - and this is an ongoing process throughout your work (as others aren't stopping in theirs for the several years it takes you to get to results).

Without that effort you might as well not bother (and it's absolutely imperative to show you have done that effort if you want to apply for any grants. No overview of the field - no grant. It's that simple.)

There is nothing surprising here. Flatworms - like Republicans - aren't complex enough to have much of a brain. so the computations can't be centralized.

What remains is a nervous system that is more distributed and where the distinction between muscle and nerve is less pronounced.

You can read articles here documenting researchers building entangled systems a kilometer or longer.

...made up of two photons (not even atoms) under VERY special/isolated circumstances.
And the systems are kilometers APART - not kilometers long.

A typical human cell has 100000000000000 (10E14) atoms. That is way, way, WAY beyond any size class where individual quantum effects matter. Singular quantum events (which do make a difference on the order of individual atoms) even out over such large numbers very quickly.

And yet the combinatoric interactions increase to 100000000000000! (factorial). That divides time into such small sections that there are ALWAYS simultaneous, irreducible interactions coupled with electromagnetic energy. This same indistinguishably is what drives lasers. A point where photons and electrons couple and behave as unitary plasmons

And yet the combinatoric interactions increase to 100000000000000! (factorial). That divides time into such small sections that there are ALWAYS simultaneous, irreducible interactions coupled with electromagnetic energy.

What does that even mean?
C'mon. That's just pseud techno-blurb.
The depolarization curves of neurons are very classical. We're dealing with electro-CHEMICAL reactions here which are slooooow (compared to quantum effects).

A point where photons and electrons couple and behave as unitary plasmons

A neuron isn't a laser. And the laser photons aren't indistinguishable. It is just resonant excitation of atoms. Notice that stuff like laser light does not occur in nature - because (as with the entanglement experiments we perform) you need precise conditions and setups that aren't available in nature.

The depolarization curves of neurons are very classical. We're dealing with electro-CHEMICAL reactions here which are slooooow (compared to quantum effects).

900 feet per second, from what I recall along motor/sensory neurons - far below the 186,000 miles per second of light, or the speed of an electrical signal in a wire... much less the instant "spooky action at a distance" speed of entanglement.