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The Electronic Language of Fungi


Do mushrooms talk to each other? A new study shows that they do this by using electrical signals. Their language is complex.

While looking at spikes in the electrical activity of certain species of fungi, Andrew Adamatzky, a computer scientist at the University of West England, found patterns strikingly similar to human speech.

This article first appeared on latest issue Revival and Ecologists Magazine.

Experimentally, he translated the spikes into a dictionary of 50 “words” based on patterns usually associated with human language.

decoding

Electrical signals respond to environmental changes such as food and injury, according to the paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

To record this activity, Adamatzky attached electrodes to four fungi — phantom bacterium, enoki mushroom, schizobranchium and caterpillar — and monitored them every second for 24 hours. The findings suggest that each species has its own way of communicating.

For example, while Enoki fungi use rich and varied patterns of electrical activity, exhibiting low-frequency irregular oscillations, schizobranch fungi transition from low-amplitude spikes to high-amplitude spikes, and are among the fastest spiking species recorded by Adamatzky in all of his records an experiment.

The study also found that electrical currents are involved in the interaction between mycelium and plant roots during the formation of mycorrhizal fungi.

Deciphering the language of fungi could go a long way toward helping us understand changes in our environment.

syntax

Merlin Sheldrake states in his book: “If we can tap into mycelial networks and decipher the signals they use to process information, we can learn more about what’s going on in the ecosystem.” entangled life.

“Fungi can report changes in soil quality, water purity, pollution, or any other environmental characteristic to which they are sensitive.”

However, as Sheldrake also mentioned, limited research has been done in the field of electrofungal activity.

While Adamatzky’s study provides a stepping stone for future research, it is limited to what Adamatzky calls “primitive taxa.”

Further research is needed to understand fungal language possibilities in more detail, such as syntax and grammar – if such a thing exists in the fungal world, of course.

the author

Yasmin Dahnoun Assistant Editor ecologist. This article first appeared on latest issue Revival and Ecologists Magazine.



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