At Mind Matters News: How plants talk when we’re not around

Some aspects of plant behavior can be studied in the same terms as animal or human behavior:

One genuine surprise in recent decades has been the discovery that plants have nervous systems like animals and use some of the same compounds in communications — for example, TMAO to relieve stress and glutamate to speed transmission.

Biologist Peter Rogers pointed out recently that the similarities may shed a bit of light on issues around anaesthesia. Surprisingly, it is possible to anesthetize a plant.

Denyse O’Leary, “How plants talk when we’re not around” at Mind Matters News

Consciousness (as some almost argue)?

Well, “consciousness” is going a little far because we’d best be clear what we mean by that. With plants, as with, say, worms, there could be an extensive communications network without any actual consciousness in the sense of an “I” in there. The effect would be roughly similar to a “smart” building, though much more complex. That is, the communications are highly sensitive and extensive, whether or not anyone is actually “home.”

Still, the ways plants communicate are remarkable. For example, one researcher tells us that plants can use RNA to “talk to” neighbours, affecting their gene expression, It was a quite unexpected finding…

Denyse O’Leary, “How plants talk when we’re not around” at Mind Matters News

You may also wish to read: Evolutionary psychologist argues that worms feel pain. But how? Wait. Barash’s hypothesis overlooks the fact that suffering is more than an alarm system. An alarm could be going off in an empty building. If some invertebrates show much more self-awareness than expected, it hardly follows that all do. We risk impeding humane reforms if we cast the net too widely.

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