" Plant tissue is a good conductor of electricity, so that electrical resistivity is used for quantification of root structures and functioning. Studies of the spatiotemporal characteristics of the electrical network activity of the root apex evidence the existence of excitable traveling waves in plants [8], similar to those observed in non-nerve electrogenic tissues of animals. Electrical activity is mostly observed in the transition zone of the root apex, and points to a possible physiological role of synchronized electrical activity in this region.
Stefano Mancuso [9] has found rising evidence that the root apex is the key to the intelligence of higher plants. He argues that plants use the root system as a complex network instead of a single powerful brain. The plant-neurobiological paradigm of Mancuso assumes that plants have electrical activity similar to neurological ones. Recent research evidences that plants are endowed with feeling [10], complex social relations and can communicate with themselves and with animals, show behaviors similar to sleeping and playing.
Obviously, not only higher plants show intelligent behavior, but also unicellular organisms. For example, the plasmodium of the slime mould physarum polycephalum has the ability to find the minimum-length solution between two points in a labyrinth – a kind of tasks we used to think only animals could perform. Physarum polycephalum shows cognition without a brain, but also without neurons at all [11].
It is well known that the boundary frequencies of the electrical activity of the human brain are common to other mammals [12]. Furthermore, the frequencies of electrical brain activity and the natural frequencies of the electromagnetic activity of the Earth’s atmosphere [13] are of the same range. This coincidence suggests that the frequencies of electrical brain activity could be of more fundamental concern and not limited to mammalian neurophysiology and, perhaps, higher plants, being embedded in the electromagnetic environment of the Earth, operate with the same frequencies of electrical activity.
Mammals including human have electrical brain activity [14] of the Theta type in the frequency range between 3 and 7 Hz, of Alpha type between 8 and 13 Hz and Beta type between 14 and 37 Hz. Below 3 Hz the brain activity is of the Delta type, and above 37 Hz the brain activity changes to Gamma. It is the physical separation of different states of brain activity that is essential for its stability. The violation of this separation can cause neurological disorders. In the case of human neurophysiology, Theta-Alpha or Alpha-Beta violation can cause speech and comprehension difficulties [15], depression and anxiety disorders [16].
Hence, the stability of the frequency boundaries separating Theta activity from Delta, and Beta activity from Alpha and Gamma is essential for neurophysiological health. The frequencies 3.0 Hz, 8.2 Hz, 13.5 Hz and 36.7 Hz define the boundaries. What is so special about these frequencies? " {Credits 1} {Credits 1} 🎪 Müller, H., Baccara, R., Hofmann, R. L., Lonero, G., Muratori, S., Papa, G., ... & Khosravi, L. (2021). Entropy Analysis of the Bioelectrical Activity of Plants. Progress In Physics, 17. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works 2.5 License.. |