The electrical language of fungi

Bioluminscent Ghost Fungus – Omphalotus nidiformis. Image: Boaz Ng.

Yasmin Dahnoun writes in Ecologist:

Do mushrooms talk to each other? A new study suggests that they do, through the use of electrical signals. And their language is complex.

In observing the spikes of electrical activity in particular species of fungi, computer scientist Andrew Adamatzky at the University of the West of England found patterns that were strikingly similar to human language.

This article first appeared in the latest issue of the Resurgence & Ecologist magazine.

Through experiments, he translated the spikes into a lexicon of 50 ‘words’ based on patterns typically associated with human speech.

Decoding

The electrical signals responded to changes in the environment such as food and injury, according to the paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

To record this activity, Adamatzky . . .

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