biostudies-literatureUnknown24(1)Freiberg JChristian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel<h4>Background</h4>Despite large morphological differences between the nervous systems of lower animals and humans, striking functional similarities have been reported. However, little is known about how these functional similarities translate to cognitive similarities. As a first step towards studying the cognitive abilities of simple nervous systems, we here characterize the ongoing electrophysiological activity of the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea. One previous report using invasive microelectrodes describes that the ongoing neural activity is characterized by a 1/f^x power spectrum with the exponent 'x' of the power spectrum close to 1. To extend these findings, we aimed to establish a recording protocol to measure ongoing neural activity safely and securely from alive andBMC neuroscience29https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC10157967biostudies-literatureCharacterization of the planarian surface electroencephalogram.PMC10157967Freiberg JLang LKaernbach CKeil JfalseCharacterization of the planarian surface electroencephalogram.<h4>Background</h4>Despite large morphological differences between the nervous systems of lower animals and humans, striking functional similarities have been reported. However, little is known about how these functional similarities translate to cognitive similarities. As a first step towards studying the cognitive abilities of simple nervous systems, we here characterize the ongoing electrophysiological activity of the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea. One previous report using invasive microelectrodes describes that the ongoing neural activity is characterized by a 1/f^x power spectrum with the exponent 'x' of the power spectrum close to 1. To extend these findings, we aimed to establish a recording protocol to measure ongoing neural activity safely and securely from alive and2023-01-01T00:00:00Z2023 May2025-04-22T08:46:51.246Z2025-04-05T22:44:53.498ZS-EPMC101579673713823610.1186/s12868-023-00799-z