Plant Consciousness and Communication: New Research Insights

In a selective and controlled manner, they have proven capable of anticipating both the imminent arrival of light - that is, the when - and its direction - that is, the where - based on the presence and position of a neutral conditioning stimulus. This result would demonstrate that plants are able to encode both temporal and spatial information and modify their behavior accordingly and flexibly. Even more surprisingly, the study would reveal that plants are capable of associative learning and therefore, rightfully, could become objects of cognitive study. Another recent study demonstrated that plants are able to detect and distinguish between the sound of feeding caterpillars and that caused by wind or insect noise. The supposed associative learning of plants would open doors to a new world in agriculture, where plants could learn to recognize the presence of a predator when exposed to the clue of an injured conspecific paired with the sound of the predator. This acoustic cue generated by the herbivore alone could then be used by the plant to mount its chemical defenses in response to subsequent herbivore threats. Plants communicate with each other in a targeted way. The exchange of volatile organic chemical substances can be interpreted as a form of plant communication. It is well known that plants use phytochrome receptors to perceive an increase in far-red radiation generated by nearby green leaves. Responding plants move away from neighbors well before they diminish their effective light acquisition. Other examples of foraging indicate that plants can anticipate future conditions, even if the mechanisms are less resolved. Early season damage to wild cotton plants was a good predictor of the risk that plants would likely encounter during the rest of the season. Some phytoplankton form protective colonies in response to water-borne signals associated with their herbivores. Herbivore cues reliably predict when it is safe to remain unshielded and solitary and when these behaviors are dangerous. By responding to signals that reliably predict future conditions, plants can anticipate risk and behave preventively. Some conclusions. In light of the analyses made and the state of research, we can easily understand why there is fierce debate about plant consciousness. The problem, evidently, does not lie so much in the collected data as in the minimal definition considered for consciousness. It is clear that if consciousness requires a wide range of emotional experiences, we must necessarily turn to the world of vertebrates, whereas if by consciousness we mean perception and processing of the surrounding world, we can certainly also consider plants conscious. Between these two poles exist many nuances and many boundaries yet to be determined, not least, and perhaps most important, is the possible existence of plant pain or a form of painful perception associated with variation potentials transmitted by phloem. The idea of collective plant consciousness, which was long hypothesized in theosophical circles of the nineteenth century and which would constitute an interesting solution and point of reflection, remains entirely to be investigated. The organic evolution of the universe. In the previous issue, in the article Entropy and Syntropy, we talked about the entropy of a system and noted that, in the case of any closed system, the second law of thermodynamics states that every physical process produces an increase in the Entropy $S$ of that system. In other words, this means that, if we suppose the Universe