Plants have been observed to interact with their environment in ways that one scientist has claimed prove they are conscious.
Paco Calvo, a professor at the University of Murcia in Spain, has been researching plant intelligence and problem solving for years, discovering that the mimosa seems to ‘learn from experience’ when it stops folding.
“In psychology this is the most basic form of learning,” Calvo told DailyMail.com.
“This pattern of folding, then not folding again, is consistent with the idea that this plant learned something as a result of experience, not from its genes.”
The professor also noted that other plants communicate with each other through chemicals, solve problems and even appear to have memories.
Mimosas can also ‘learn’ that a particular touch is safe
Many scientists define intelligence as having a central nervous system, where electrical signals pass messages along to other nerves to process information.
Instead, plants have a vascular system, which is a network of cells that transports water, minerals, and nutrients to help them grow.
“We think of plants as resources, for fuel, for oxygen, for textiles, for food, but we don’t respect them for their own sake,” Calvo said.
“If we can understand another form of intelligence that doesn’t require a brain, maybe we can understand what unites us all in the tree of life.
“We need to find the master key.”
Calvo is a professor at the University of Murcia in Spain, where he directs the Minimal Intelligence Lab (MINT Lab).
Some plants seem to ‘remember’ droughts, conserving water more efficiently than plants that have not previously lived through drought, and strawberries can be trained to associate light with nutrient patches, the professor said.
He went on to explain that plants also learn to time their pollen release when pollinators like bees are present.
Researchers have also speculated that plants may be able to count, make decisions, recognize their relatives and even remember events.
The problem is that people have an understanding of intelligence based on themselves – which is focused on animals with brains and causes us to ignore other possible intelligence and consciousness.
“Our view is that you must be an animal, otherwise you cannot be intelligent. This is very short-sighted,” said Calvo.
A recent study conducted at Cornell University found that goldenrods release a chemical when eaten by beetles, tricking the insects into thinking it is damaged and a poor food source—then so do goldenrods. gold nearby.
Andre Kessler, a chemical ecologist and professor at Cornell, said: “This would fit our definition of intelligence.
Wild strawberries can ‘learn’ to associate light with nutrient patches
‘Depending on the information it receives from the environment, the plant changes its standard behaviour.’
Calvo is among a growing number of scientists who are calling for a new understanding of how plants solve problems and communicate — and said the way they do it is in many ways similar to how humans ‘ they think’, only without a central brain.
Plant cells fire voltages in the form of action potentials, just like brain cells. When you double-tap the trigger hairs of the Venus Flytrap and it closes, it’s an action potential,” he said.
‘Not having a brain or nervous system doesn’t mean you can’t have electrochemical communication!’
Calvo has also suggested that plants ‘think’ using their vascular system, which is a network of cells that transports water, minerals and nutrients to help them grow.
But it is also used to transmit information, he noted.
A recent study conducted at Cornell University found that goldenrods release a chemical when eaten by beetles, tricking the insects into thinking it is damaged and a poor food source—then nearby goldenrods make the same thing.
“Not having a brain or a nervous system doesn’t mean you can’t have some form of electrochemical communication,” the professor continued.
“You have electrical signals traveling through the vascular system – so your plant doesn’t just respond where it’s stimulated, it can respond at the other end of the plant.
“Plants don’t have brains, but they still use electrochemical communication in their timing to stay alive.”
Calvo said the same neurotransmitters present in the human brain (such as glutamate or GABA) are also present in plants — and sometimes used in the same way.
Paco Calvo argues that plants are conscious, but in a very different way
“So if you have a plant and you have this caterpillar chewing on the leaf, the plant can use the neurotransmitter glutamate to trigger a wave of calcium that spreads throughout its stem and leaves, creating a defensive chemical weapon to repel the caterpillar,” he. is explained.
Calvo said that plants must have a different survival strategy than humans because they are rooted in the soil — so their strategy is “divide and conquer.”
“So if you try to grab or attack an animal, it might fight back,” he explained.
“In the case of plants, they can’t do any of that – so their strategy is to have everything really decentralized.
“If you cut a branch, they’ll grow another branch. That doesn’t happen to me if I take my hand off.’
Research into understanding plant intelligence could be crucial to understanding ourselves and the battle against climate change.
“We think of plants as resources, for fuel, for oxygen, for textiles, for food, but we don’t respect them for their own sake,” Calvo said.
“If we can understand another form of intelligence that doesn’t require a brain, maybe we can understand what unites us all in the tree of life. We need to find the master key.’