{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,29]],"date-time":"2026-10-29T18:35:13Z","timestamp":1793298913558,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":13,"publisher":"MIT Press","issue":"3","content-domain":{"domain":["direct.mit.edu"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,27]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Living systems must preserve organization while their components relax, diffuse, or fluctuate. Most origin-of-life accounts place this problem in space, emphasizing membranes and compartments, but persistence also has a temporal dimension. Here we ask whether a dissipative system with delayed feedback can retain statistically meaningful dependence on its own past without an explicit clock or dedicated memory variable. We studied a minimal stochastic delay equation with inhibitory delayed feedback and quantified temporal self-retention by comparing autocorrelation decay time with the intrinsic dissipative timescale. The index crossed unity at \u03c4 \u2248 1.918 and remained above unity up to \u03c4 = 30.0 under the default parameters. The transition occurred across feedback strengths \u03b2 = 1.0\u20133.5, collapsed under nondimensional \u03b3\u03c4 scaling when \u03b2\/\u03b3 and \u03c3\/\u221a\u03b3 were fixed, and was distinct from the analytical Hopf boundary. Delay dispersion did not abolish the near-threshold regime, whereas high noise shifted it slightly below unity. Mutual information confirmed persistent dependence between present and delayed states in the long-delay regime. These results identify a minimal delay-dissipative regime in which temporal organization persists beyond dissipation alone, providing a proof of concept for temporal self-retention in artificial-life systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/artl.a.474","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,14]],"date-time":"2026-08-14T19:57:10Z","timestamp":1786737430000},"page":"256-269","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Temporal Membranes: Delay-Induced Self-Retention Without Clocks or Memory Substrates"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"32","author":[{"given":"Nobuchika","family":"Yamaki","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"TNQ Tech, Co."},{"name":"King\u2019s College London nobuchika.yamaki@tnqtech.ooo"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tenna","family":"Churiki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"TNQ Tech, Co."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"281","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026102913554049100_bib1","volume-title":"Elements of information theory","author":"Cover","year":"2006","edition":"2nd ed."},{"key":"2026102913554049100_bib2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"514","DOI":"10.1038\/srep00514","article-title":"Information processing capacity of dynamical systems","volume":"2","author":"Dambre","year":"2012","journal-title":"Scientific Reports"},{"issue":"2","key":"2026102913554049100_bib3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"239","DOI":"10.1128\/mmbr.61.2.239-261.1997","article-title":"The first living systems: A bioenergetic perspective","volume":"61","author":"Deamer","year":"1997","journal-title":"Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews"},{"key":"2026102913554049100_bib4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-0-387-74372-1","volume-title":"Applied delay differential equations","author":"Erneux","year":"2009"},{"key":"2026102913554049100_bib5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1515\/9780691221793","volume-title":"From clocks to chaos: The rhythms of life","author":"Glass","year":"1988"},{"key":"2026102913554049100_bib6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"39","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-cellbio-100913-013325","article-title":"Liquid\u2013liquid phase separation in biology","volume":"30","author":"Hyman","year":"2014","journal-title":"Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology"},{"key":"2026102913554049100_bib7","volume-title":"The \u201cecho state\u201d approach to analysing and training recurrent neural networks","author":"Jaeger","year":"2001"},{"key":"2026102913554049100_bib8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780195121049.001.0001","volume-title":"Investigations","author":"Kauffman","year":"2000"},{"issue":"11","key":"2026102913554049100_bib9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2531","DOI":"10.1162\/089976602760407955","article-title":"Real-time computing without stable states: A new framework for neural computation based on perturbations","volume":"14","author":"Maass","year":"2002","journal-title":"Neural Computation"},{"key":"2026102913554049100_bib11","volume-title":"Life itself: A comprehensive inquiry into the nature, origin, and fabrication of life","author":"Rosen","year":"1991"},{"issue":"2","key":"2026102913554049100_bib12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"461","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevLett.85.461","article-title":"Measuring information transfer","volume":"85","author":"Schreiber","year":"2000","journal-title":"Physical Review Letters"},{"key":"2026102913554049100_bib14","volume-title":"Nonlinear dynamics and chaos: With applications to physics, biology, chemistry, and engineering","author":"Strogatz","year":"2015","edition":"2nd ed."},{"issue":"2","key":"2026102913554049100_bib16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"026212","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevE.77.026212","article-title":"Destabilization patterns in chains of coupled oscillators","volume":"77","author":"Yanchuk","year":"2008","journal-title":"Physical Review E"}],"container-title":["Artificial Life"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/artl\/article-pdf\/32\/3\/256\/2620891\/artl.a.474.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/artl\/article-pdf\/32\/3\/256\/2620891\/artl.a.474.pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,29]],"date-time":"2026-10-29T17:55:48Z","timestamp":1793296548000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/artl\/article\/32\/3\/256\/138279\/Temporal-Membranes-Delay-Induced-Self-Retention"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"references-count":13,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,27]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,27]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/artl.a.474","relation":{},"ISSN":["1064-5462","1530-9185"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1064-5462","type":"print"},{"value":"1530-9185","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published-other":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"published":{"date-parts":[[2026]]}}}