Autonomous Pica Mechanism Research

An iterative biomedical literature-research system and protocol for Gemini / Antigravity to investigate the biological mechanisms of Pica.

Mission & Goal

Go beyond summarizing literature. Build a mechanistic evidence graph, connect Pica to adjacent biological fields, actively search for contradictions, identify missing causal links, and generate falsifiable hypotheses that survive adversarial peer review.

Architecture & Layout

.
├── .agents/
│   ├── hooks.json                # Antigravity lifecycle hooks configuration
│   └── hooks/
│       └── research_gate.py      # PreInvocation and Stop gate enforcer
├── research/
│   └── SEARCH_POLICY.md          # Token-efficient search escalation policy
├── state/                        # Persistent disk-backed state files
│   ├── world-model.md            # Verified literature consensus & mechanistic map
│   ├── hypothesis-pool.md        # Competing hypotheses (N0–N4) & predictions
│   ├── uncertainty-map.md        # Anomalies, contradictions, and evidence gaps
│   ├── research-queue.md         # Prioritized next investigations
│   ├── dead-ends.md              # Falsified/rejected hypotheses & decisive evidence
│   └── search-cache.md           # Query cache to prevent redundant literature searches
├── tests/
│   └── test_hooks.py             # Automated unit tests for lifecycle enforcement
├── GEMINI.md                     # Complete autonomous research system prompt
└── README.md                     # Project documentation

Core Research Loop

graph TD
    A[State Current Model] --> B[Generate & Rank Questions]
    B --> C[Check Search Cache]
    C --> D[Search & Citation Traverse]
    D --> E[Extract & Classify Evidence]
    E --> F[Update World Model & Graph]
    F --> G[Falsification & Adversarial Review]
    G --> H[Update Queue & State Files]
    H --> A

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Initial Biological Intersections

• Pica × Iron deficiency & hypoxia: Cellular hypoxia, non-heme iron sensing, and systemic homeostasis.
• Pica × Nutrient-specific appetite: Hypothalamic appetite circuits and selective micronutrient drives.
• Pica × Gut-brain & vagal signaling: Enteric sensory cells, vagus nerve afferents, and GI barrier integrity.
• Geophagy × GI inflammation & microbiome: Cation adsorption, clay surface binding, mucosal protection, and toxin sequestration.
• Pagophagia × Neuromodulation: Cold/tactile trigeminal activation, locus coeruleus norepinephrine release, and cerebral blood flow enhancement.
• Iron × Dopamine/reward circuitry: Striatal D2 receptor changes and compulsive/appetitive reinforcement.
• Cross-species models: Differentiating rodent kaolin ingestion (visceral malaise/nausea surrogate in non-emetic species) from human deficiency-driven pica.

Running Tests

Verify the lifecycle enforcement hooks and state validation:

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests

See GEMINI.md for the full operational protocol.