Enoki mushroom is one of the species analyzed by the researchers (Image: Unsplash)
A new study led by scientists at the University of the West of England in the United Kingdom has identified nerve-like patterns of electrical activity produced by fungi. the report, Published in the Royal Society Open to Science, indicates that these patterns are comparable to human speech. Researcher Andrew Adamatsky identified as many as 50 “words” or electrical activity produced by the analyzed fungal networks.
The electrical activity was detected and recorded using microelectrodes inserted into the areas colonized by the fungi, and the activity spikes were then organized into clusters. While the electrical hum in fungi is already known, the new study reveals that these patterns could be language. Adamatzky analyzed electrical activity in four types of fungi: ghost fungi (Omphalotus nidiformis), Enoki fungi (Flammulina velutipes), gill fungi (Schizophyllum commune) and caterpillar fungi (Cordyceps militaris).
“We don’t know if there is a direct relationship between height patterns in fungi and human speech,” Adamatsky told the Guardian. “Probably not. On the other hand, there are many similarities in the processing of information in the living substrates of different classes, families and species.”
a second Science alert reportthese signals could be ways in which the fungus can warn of threats to its survival or a change in the resources available in the environment, for example.
differences
Ecologist Dan Pepper of the University of Exeter in the UK, who was not involved in the study, described the research as controversial. “Although the interpretation as a language is interesting, it seems a bit enthusiastic and will require a lot of research and testing of critical hypotheses,” Bieber told the Guardian.
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