It has long been known that fungi emit electrical signals that could be used to communicate. Kind of like the ones that travel through the neurons of human beings. However, a new study, published in The Royal Society Open Sciencehas found a way to translate the peaks of those electrical signals in some kind of language. Almost as if they were words in the method of spoken communication that we humans use. Therefore, it could be said that they have discovered as they speak the mushrooms
Logically, we are not dealing with a language that can be translated into humans, as when we went from English to Spanish. Nor is it a conscious means of communication. However, these scientists believe that classify as words the patterns in the spikes of the mushrooms’ electrical signals can help us better understand what they are for.
In addition, it is the most curious. They themselves recognize that, beyond the applications that their discovery may have, they it was funny provide a language to fungi. But how exactly have they done it? And, more importantly: what are mushrooms talking about?
The communication network of fungi
Just as plants have roots that help them absorb nutrients from the soil, fungi have something known as micellar cord. This is a set of filaments that help them invade the roots and wood of trees, as well as access remote places in search of resources.
But it has also been seen that this network connects some fungi with others and allows them to send each other messages. As if they were neurons, electrical signals pass through these cords, with a goal that is not yet fully understood.
For this reason, the authors of the study that has just been published, coming from the University of the West of EnglandThey decided to use the bioinformatics to try to find a language that would make sense of all these signals. And the results are most curious.
a new language
To carry out the study, the electrical activity of four types of fungi was collected: the ghost mushroomsOmphalotus nidiformis), Enoki mushrooms (Flammulina velutipes), the divided gill fungi (Schizophyllum commune) and caterpillar fungi (Cordyceps militaris). To do this, they placed small electrodes in the areas that these fungi had colonized.
The activity peaks were then recorded and divided into groups, according to the length and duration of each peak. In this way patterns were established that could be considered practically as words.
It is curious, because in the same way that a German does not speak the same as a Spaniard, or that even within Spain in some communities some letters are eaten, mushrooms made up phrases very different according to their species. The gill fungi, for example, were the ones that made up the sentences more complex. However, the length of each word had an average of 5.97 peak groupswhich is not far from languages such as English, with 4.7, or Russian, with 6.
But what are they saying? That remains a mystery, although the researchers believe that this language of the fungi could be used to alert about possible dangers or warn of changes in the resources of the environment. Of course, it is not something conscious; but, for example, these responses could be triggered by changes in the chemical composition of the soil.
Perhaps each fungal species has its own patterns for sending these signals. Can it be interpreted as a language? It depends of what we understand as language. Generally is considered something inherent to the human being and it is clear that it is not translatable to the way in which we communicate. But that other living beings have their own mechanisms to communicate is more than clear. That they do it with patterns as defined as mushrooms is curious, but it does not mean that they are speaking as such.
In fact, the lead author of the study, Andrew Adamatzkyhas made it clear in statements to Guardian that the fact of comparing the communication of fungi with human language is still a simple curiosity.
“We don’t know if there is a direct relationship between spike patterns in fungi and human speech. Possibly not. On the other hand, there are many similarities in information processing in living substrates of different classes, families, and species. I was just curious to compare.”
Andrew Adamatzky, lead author of the study
In short, speaking or not of language depends in part on the prism through which one looks. But, be that as it may, what these scientists have done is not only curious for themselves. Know what fungi can to talkalthough not in the strictest sense of the word, it is still curious for the rest of the mortals.