A British researcher suggests this after he put some electrodes in pots inhabited by fungi.

The experiments not only confirm that fungi generate electrical signals, but also show that their pattern is very reminiscent of the communication between human nerve cells. In fact, there are even similarities between the electrical signals generated by fungi and human language. And that cautiously hints that fungi may well use those electrical signals to transmit information, researcher Andrew Adamatzky writes in the journal. Royal Society Open Science†

From our brains…

Our brains contain neurons that are part of our nervous system. That nervous system has its own ‘language’. Action potentials play a leading role in this: an independently generated wave of electrical discharge across the membrane of the neurons. These action potentials are used by the nervous system to transfer information from one nerve cell to another, but also, for example, from nerve cells to muscle cells.

…to fungi

However, anyone who thinks that such electrical signals only occur in organisms with a nervous system is wrong. Previous studies have shown that almost all organisms without a nervous system can also produce electrical signals. And that also applies to fungi, as researchers have already shown. For example, fungi appear to chase electrical signals through their (usually underground) network of fungal threads. The fact that the electrical activity in those wires increases when the fungus in question encounters food previously hinted cautiously that fungi – like our nerve cells – communicate through electrical signals. Hard evidence for this is lacking. But in a new study, researcher Andrew Adamatzky takes that assumption as a starting point and explores the electrical signals that fungi generate to find out whether they could have a communicative function.

The research

“We speculated that electrical activity in a fungus is a manifestation of information communicated between distant parts of the fungal colony,” Adamatzky writes in his research paper. To further explore that hypothesis, he studied four different types of fungi. “I placed electrodes in substrate colonized by mycelium,” he explains Scientias.nl† Mycelium or mycelium is the network of fungal threads mentioned above, which can usually be found underground and can be quite extensive. “Using the electrodes, I observed action potential-like peaks,” said Adamatzky. “And I discovered that those peaks formed little trains.” In other words, the action potential-like spikes are stringed together by the fungi, just as we humans string letters into words and words into sentences. “I collected and analyzed statistics about the length of those ‘trains’,” says Adamatzky. “And I compared the distribution of train lengths with the distribution of word lengths in human language and found similarities.”

Similarities

Very concretely, Adamatzky’s analysis shows that the four species string together an average of 5.97 action potential-like peaks into ‘words’. And with that, the average length of their ‘words’ comes close to that of some human languages, such as English (average word length of 4.8 letters) and Russian (average word length of 6 letters). In addition, there also appear to be similarities between the distribution of long and shorter ‘words’ used by fungi and the distribution of long and shorter words used in human languages. “To date, the only similarities (between fungal ‘language’ and human languages, ed.) are the average word length and word length distribution,” Adamatzky says. “But there are hundreds of morphological and syntactic features that can be studied and compared in the future.” However, the preliminary agreements are already quite intriguing, Adamatzky thinks. “The results could indicate that there is some kind of universal grammar underlying communication in all living substrates.”

Mutual differences

Incidentally, there are differences between the fungal species. For example, Adamatzky’s analysis indicates that some species have a larger ‘vocabulary’ than others, with the largest vocabulary having up to 50 words. And the average word length also differs from species to species. Just like the complexity of the ‘sentences’ that the fungi form with those words.

Fungal language is not yet a given

Although Adamatzky thinks he has found indications in the structure of the electrical signals that they may have a communicative function, there is still no hard evidence for this even after this study. Adamatzky is also aware of this, he admits. “Probably the electric action potential-like spikes are byproducts of calcium waves. Those calcium waves may be used by the fungi to maintain integrity, i.e. to alert other remote parts of the mycelium to their presence. It is a bit like howling wolves: in many cases they howl to alert others to their presence and thus maintain the integrity of the pack.” In addition, the calcium waves can also be used to inform other parts of the mycelium that useful sources have been found; water or nutrients that can then be transported through the mycelium. “And finally, there is also another possibility, which is that they are not communicating anything.”

Slime molds and plants

Whether fungi really have their own language remains unclear after this study. But the research shows that it is certainly not inconceivable. And that’s a conclusion that didn’t surprise Adamatzky. “I’ve seen similar electrical activity in my slime mold experiments,” he says. “Slime molds are not fungi, but there are similarities between slime molds and fungi. In addition, there is increasing evidence that plants transmit information through electrical impulses. The discovery of electrical signal-based communication in fungi would therefore fit very well in the context of living substrates that communicate through calcium waves and peaks in electrical activity.”

Follow-up research will have to show whether fungi really have an electrically charged language and if so, what exactly they are discussing. However, such findings may take some time, Adamatzky warns. “You shouldn’t expect results too quickly: despite living with them for centuries, we still haven’t been able to decipher the language of cats and dogs and the research into the electrical communication of fungi is really still in the making. the infancy.”