Plants 'can think and remember'

[spurr]

Found this too:


The Society for Plant Neurobiology
http://www.plantbehavior.org/neuro.html


(in conjunction with the journal "Plant Signaling and Behavior"; link to journal website)

The Society for Plant Neurobiology was formed after the First International Symposium on Plant Neurobiology was held in Florence in 2005. This, and each of the subsequent symposia, were scientifically energizing and exciting, drawing a diverse array of participants.

Plant Neurobiology describes a newly named, but also old and fascinating field in plant biology addressing the physiological basis of adaptive behavior in plants. Perhaps this field could be called "Sensory Biology in Plants" or something similar. However, these names don't quite cover topics like plant cytology and anatomy, adaptive plant behavior, signaling and communication in symbiosis and pathogenesis, or newly emerging topics like for instance plant immunity, plant memory and learning, plant-plant communication, as well as plant intelligence.

Our choice of the term Plant Neurobiology is described in Brenner et al. (2006) where we note some obvious analogies between classical neurobiology and some aspects of the physiology of plants. For example, plants have long been known to respond sensitively to environmental stimuli by movement and changes in morphology, to be electrically excitable, to display rapid electrical responses (action potentials) to environmental stimuli, to synthesize numerous organic molecules that act as neurochemicals in other organisms, and to use hormonal signaling pathways to coordinate development, morphology and thus, accomplish behavioral responses to environmental, communicative, and ecological contexts.

For a better understanding of the world around us, it is important that we develop and share the growing understanding of plants as dynamic and highly sensitive organisms. No longer can plants be viewed and portrayed as passive entities merely subject to environmental forces, as 'automata'-like organisms based only on reflexes and optimised solely for accumulation of photosynthate. With a fuller understanding of signaling and communication within and among plants, it becomes clear that these sensitive biological organisms actively and competitively forage for limited resources, both above and below ground. In addition, plants accurately compute their circumstances, use sophisticated cost benefit analysis, and they take tightly controlled actions to mitigate and control diverse environmental stressors. Plants also emerge as capable of discriminating positive and negative experiences, and 'learning' from their past experiences. Plants use this cognitively acquired information to update their behavior in order to survive present and future challenges of their environment. Moreover, plants are also capable of refined recognition of self and non-self, and are territorial in behavior.

This Plant Neurobiological view sees plants as information-processing organisms with complex communications of various types occurring throughout the individual plant. What we need to find out is how their information is gathered and processed, what routes do data take (if not via 'nerves' sensu strictu), and how are adaptive responses integrated and coordinated, how are these events 'remembered' in order to allow realistic predictions of future using past experiences.

Last but not least, plants are as sophisticated in behavior as animals but this potential has been masked effectively because it operates on time scales many orders of magnitude slower than in animals. At the very least, this quality should make it easier for experimental plant scientists to uncover the mysteries of their neurobiological function and behavioral responses.


Reference:
Brenner E, Stahlberg R, Mancuso S, Vivanco J, Baluška F, Van Volkenburgh E (2006) Plant neurobiology: an integrated view of plant signaling. Trends Plant Sci 11: 413-419

Here is the "resources" page (link) for the The Society for Plant Neurobiology. You can find a PFD link (here) to download the combined abstracts from all Symposiums (from 2005 to current). I should be able to get most all studies from the journal of Plant Signaling and Behavior, The Society for Plant Neurobiology (from 2005 to current).

 

[spurr]

Last post for now:


Springer's book series on Signaling and Communication in Plants (link). Series Editors: Baluška, František, Vivanco, Jorge M.

 

[spurr]

Ok really last post for now, I uploaded the full text to this post:

"The ‘root-brain’ hypothesis of Charles and Francis Darwin: Revival after more than 125 years"
František Baluška, Stefano Mancuso, Dieter Volkmann and Peter W. Barlow
Plant Signaling & Behavior 4:12, 1121-1127; December 2009​

Abstract:

This year celebrates the 200th aniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, best known for his theory of evolution summarized in On the Origin of Species. Less well known is that, in the second half of his life, Darwin’s major scientific focus turned towards plants. He wrote several books on plants, the next-to-last of which, The Power of Movement of Plants, published together with his son Francis, opened plants to a new view. Here we amplify the final sentence of this book in which the Darwins proposed that:

“It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the tip of the radicle thus endowed [with sensitivity] and having the power of directing the movements of the adjoining parts, acts like the brain of one of the lower animals; the brain being seated within the anterior end of the body, receiving impressions from the sense-organs, and directing the several movements.”​

This sentence conveys two important messages: first, that the root apex may be considered to be a ‘brain-like’ organ endowed with a sensitivity which controls its navigation through soil; second, that the root apex represents the anterior end of the plant body. In this article, we discuss both these statements.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

spurr

Buuuuuttttttt Darwin hated the much beloved baby Jesus! And it's now Christmas where the obligatory merchandising of this manifestation of the God-head is at hand! Damn it!

Why do 'liberals' hate little baby Jesus (aka Hey-Sus!) anyway?

Bastards!

LMAO

CC

 

[spurr]

Haha! Don't get me started on the BS lies about jesus being born in December...if jesus really did exist, and that's a big IF, he wasn't born in December. Gotta love those fuc*ing disingenuous religious nut cases!

FWIW:

I just noticed a co-author, Stefano Mancuso, of the paper I just uploaded "The ‘root-brain’ hypothesis of Charles and Francis Darwin: Revival after more than 125 years", is the same guy who gave the TED talk CT Guy and you posted about: Stefano Mancuso: The roots of plant intelligence

Neat!

 

[Clackamas Coot]

FWIW:

I just noticed a co-author, Stefano Mancuso, of the paper I just uploaded "The ‘root-brain’ hypothesis of Charles and Francis Darwin: Revival after more than 125 years", is the same guy who gave the TED talk CT Guy and you posted about: Stefano Mancuso: The roots of plant intelligence

Neat!

spurr

I'm sure that you like everybody else is tired of reading about this but I bought an iPad which I have found to be the very best technology toy I've ever owned/used.

On the TED deal, for the Apple iPad is a TED application where scooting around their web site for specific presentations is a breeze - quite an amazing deal actually.

I really enjoy watching many of their videos. If you're even remotely interested in learning the science behind baking artisan breads there is a TED video done by Peter Reinhart which you might find interesting. Many/most of the science behind soil biology have a direct application in other areas - like baking artisan breads.

Peace

BTW - I bought/ordered a copy of 'Plant Physiology' based on your recommendation and I'm looking forward to reading this tome.

CC

 

[MrFista]

Sam - I considered MJ did not share the same phototropic responses as Arabidopsis after I posted. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

I did not intent the comment concerning pseudo science to be aimed at you, my apologies it seemed that way.

Edit - whoever finds this post 'unhelpful' can kiss my butt - I move the goalposts as I learn and make no apologies for being wrong.

 

[Maria_Vanessa]

Sam - I considered MJ did not share the same phototropic responses as Arabidopsis after I posted. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

I did not intent the comment concerning pseudo science to be aimed at you, my apologies it seemed that way.

Edit - whoever finds this post 'unhelpful' can kiss my butt - I move the goalposts as I learn and make no apologies for being wrong.

I know this is unrelated, but I will say it anyway, so please bear with me.

I'm very angry at myself for spelling Arabidoposis today in my Soil Fertility/Nutrient Management final today.

 

[hazemaker]

A big sticky vagina?????????// LMFAO thats a great analogy anti! Bro thought, feelings this is all very subjective, My point isnt that plants are human, nor hold our trivial manorisms, my point is we are all connected, all one, so plant communication as a matter of science seems not only plausible but the only plausible possibility.

I paraphrase terrence mckenna- plants created animals to move around seeds.

This plant has made it from the himalayas to presumably your closet! Its beloved by millions and chance of eradication, seems entirely impossible! can grow pole to pole, wet n dry conditions hot suns and even very cool nights high humidity and low humidity. It seems to be is senses, adapt and overcomes its environment. Can impregnate itself to assure survival, impregnate when only females are present. All of this and more, all of this shows a certain ability to THINK, To OBSERVE, TO SENSE, to FEEL. You think? show me where! show me in you where your memories lay or lie, Show me where n how you feel, YEARS of anecdotal evidence shows, music and the farmer who sings and talks and swoons over a plant sees a return. I look at my plants and see distress, happiness etc. Words cant describe the communication between the grower and the plant but that doesnt make it nonsense. Afterall absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

When it comes to plants being able to think. It is a lot like people that have faith, nothing can prove them wrong in their minds. People without faith see other's faith as just a belief not based on scientific proof. I understand that some here want to believe that plants can think and remember, as well as observe, sense, feel. But what if anything a plant can do is not thinking, not conscious not a feeling of self, just a plant version of instinctual responses?

-SamS

 

[Honkytonk]

There're more or less trivial computer programs that pass the Turing Test by combining input with memory and a static set of rules.

Is a plant's genetic program that processes environmental input different? I don't think so.

It's anthropomorphism that clouds the issue, sometimes it's hard to determine the difference between thinking and the simulation thereof.
Do plants 'think' if there's no environmental input to process? Do they get bored?

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

Honkytonk - it's an interesting question - apparently (see my post above), plants show similar electrical responses to humans indicating something that works like emotions (but, in my speculation is probably "experienced" by the plant very differently from how we "feel" emotions, given the lack of a human consciousness). So is boredom an emotion? Hell, can insects feel boredom? (Maybe they get mad bored if they stop skittering around all the time, which is why we never see lazy bugs?).

[I blame the shark haze for any and all pseudoscience in the above]

 

[Honkytonk]

You don't see lazy bugs because lazy bugs are either extinct or natural selection 'taught' them to hide from you and other dangers when being 'lazy'.

 

[MrFista]

I think some of the anthropomorphic confusion stems from the why and how.

How does a plant react to stimulus? vs why does a plant react to stimulus?

Asking why a plant does something infers reasoning. How a plant does something seeks the input-output pathway, the reality of the thing.

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

I was, of course, being facetious suggesting that bugs move constantly because they get bored otherwise...

After talking about this with some friends who work in cognitive science, I think a distinction needs to be made between 'intelligence', 'cognition', and 'consciousness'. Intelligence, as an ability to store, recall, evaluate, and compare data, can be accomplished without cognition or consciousness - by computers (digital and mechanical), chemical compounds, and possibly/arguably/questionably plants. To put it into growing terms, a computer can monitor your grow room environment, modulate its conditions, record all the data and compare it with past recordings, even (with the right code and hardware) compare data recorded on environmental conditions, link it to data recorded on plant development, and 'learn' to modulate the environment in an optimal way.

Cognition - the ability to 'understand' data is hinged on a symbolic/metaphoric interpretation of that data. The difference between computing data and attributing significance to that data arrives here: (to continue from the metaphor above) no computer can observe your room and calculate how "good" the herb will taste (especially tircky in the interpretation of sensory data, which generally means "pleasurable", but personally variable), because good is a subjective/relative concept that requires metaphor to modulate data within a frame of reference.

Finally, we have consciousness - a thing's intellectual awareness of itself as a thing. A computer does not (cannot?) develop this - it can be programmed to simulate it, but thus far, can't become "aware".

Looking at these three phenomena (all of which can be generally grouped under "thought" or "intelligence"), it seems (enter speculation) that while intelligence can appear in a variety of forms either individually- or collectively-computed, cognition and consciousness are dependent on the neurological hardware at the top of our spines.

 

[spurr]

@ IncredibowlBoss,

Great post and distinctions!

@ Mr.F.,

As always your posts impress me. Also, what's up with some douche bag neg rating all your posts in this thread? Do have have a stalker? If so, welcome to the club, I have two

 

[Madrus Rose]

After talking about this with some friends who work in cognitive science, I think a distinction needs to be made between 'intelligence', 'cognition', and 'consciousness'. Intelligence, as an ability to store, recall, evaluate, and compare data, can be accomplished without cognition or consciousness - by computers (digital and mechanical), chemical compounds, and possibly/arguably/questionably plants.

And when u hold up a mirror up & find your plant ( & your dog)
recognizes its own image & says :

" That's Me Thats Me Thats Me !!

...u know u've found a real 'cognizant' keeper !

 

[hazemaker]

Can someone please tell me how to CAREFULY convince a bat to shit over there soil? I have tried punching the little fucker in the gut, feeding him mcdonalds, water boarding(had to flush figured why not?) Never the less the little fuckers tough, perhaps constipated from the 1l tiger bloom bottle i forced down his narrow but demonic throat. He has pissed though, i figure welll got nitrogen covered. You know they act like this shit is easy on infomercials on msnbc, You never see how they get the bat to shit let alone do it every 15 minutes in 1 oz increments. Like a trade secret or something. My friend says its the fukn mercury from the busted bulbs from his to attempts to escape, but it was only 45 lights and that seems ok, no?

 

[MrFista]

For insect movement look up taxis and kinesis to understand a bit better.

@ Spurr - the negative reps - I'm wondering if maybe it's a fight club thing and my intelligent side is neg repping the inbred hick that I really am.

Nicely worded analogies incredibowlness.

So, are we agreed on intelligence - storage, recall and evaluation of data?

I like this meaning, and it fits with what I've learned of plants here lately. If we agree there, then the next thing to assess is cognition - the ability to understand data.

This I need to think about, hehe.

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

I'm searching through my notes to find the source for an experiment that proved that if a plant is given an electric shock when a piece of metal is placed next to it, it will respond as if shocked whenever the piece of metal is placed there. (Basically, something that works like a Pavlovian response).

I *do* wanna confirm my source before I speculate, but if this *is* credible, then this might be construed as a form of cognition, because the plant "interprets" the presence of the metal as "damnit... here comes a shock..."