What is happening in the study of mental activities: neurosciences dialogue with each other more and more, reducing margins of distance between psychology, psychiatry and neurology; Eastern disciplines have fully entered the therapeutic paths; Mental activities are influenced by the type of intestinal bacterial flora in turn is regulated by the type of nutrition: the microbiota, a set of bacterial colonies thanks to which we remain in life and in good health.
Concepts such as “interconnected networks” and “dimensions” replace more and more those of “discrete entities” and “categories”. Living organisms are shown in continuous and mutual interaction and dialogue, to constitute the planet Earth as a single living organism.
I am reminded of a conference, which I participated a few years ago, in which a speaker, North American and family therapy scholar, mentioned the studies made on plants and their way of communicating.
The hypothesis made was that of starting from models of interaction in botany to better understand the relationships between humans and frankly it seemed to me initially a somewhat bizarre idea. Giving vegetable to a human being has never been a compliment. Yet rethinking us today, in the light of the numerous studies, the idea appears to me fascinating and in line with that vision of the planet Earth as a single living organism.
It was the year 1880 when Charles Darwin hypothesized a kind of “brain” in plants, placing it in the radical apices, capable of perceiving numerous signals from the surrounding environment and based on these putting in place of the strategies to follow. Each peak is at the same time autonomous and able to have a relationship with others.
This idea, bizarre at first sight, followed the path of similar intuitions: many years in the drawer and then it happens that someone does not consider it to be bargain. He charged the attention of some researchers in the last century and currently a group of scholars from Florence, including Stefano Mancuso at the forefront, and Bonn.
Today more than a hypothesis is a concrete figure that the plants are capable not only of receiving environmental signals but also to transmit them quickly.
In elaborating the environmental data show a learning ability that projected on the ability to seek a purpose, to evaluate errors and above all the ability to maintain mnesic traces over time.
They are able to produce neurobiologically active substances, similar or identical to our neurotransmitters, synthesize numerous receptors – for glutamate, the acid of the cottage of the cowholm (GABA), glycine, acetylcholine and synapthogamine -; They also manage to give birth to action potential through which they communicate locally.
They are even able to create synaptic joints through which to transfer chemical or electric information between cells. In each peak there is what is called the “transition area” consisting of cells with neuronal characteristics as they have a method of transmission identical to that present in the nerve systems of the animal world. Once generated, the impulses find themselves propagating through the neurotransmitter molecules, the same found in the animal world.
Human experience had been knew for some time that plants produce substances that can affect man’s psychic functions – caffeine, teina, opioids, cannabinoids and many others – but today the discovery of neurotransmitter substances makes one think of a sort of neural activity of plants.
Baluska, a scholar in the sector, believes that the auxina, the most important vegetable hormone known so far, which allows the plant to increase and issue new roots, can be considered a specific neurotransmitter of the plant world, not dissimilar from melatonin or animal serotonin. The set of all this would determine a form of vegetable “intelligence” that the plant implements for example in difficulty situations.
It seems that plants, just like animals, act through attempts and errors: in situations for them, they implement a series of attempts until they find the optimal solution.
The wonderful thing is that of all this remains a Mnesica trace when they find themselves facing the same problem. The water is missing, and them? They avoid breathing by increasing the thickness of the surface layer, close all the openings and porosity, reduce the number of leaves and unleash the roots to inspect the neighboring areas. They use the winds of the wind or the land paths to move information on the state of health or on the parasites circulating in the surroundings.
If attacked by a pathogen immediately activate a tam tam directed to the conscious of the same species, messengers of the alarm are volatile substances, which warn imminent danger and urge to develop immune defenses. The level of “socialization” of plants has wonderful.
In territoriality they show themselves similar to the animal world: they warn the surrounding area of their presence through substances dissolved in the ground; The roots intercept the frenetic communications that circulate underground and understand if they have friends or enemies close: in the second hypothesis they activate aggressive processes that lead to launching poisonous substances; And that wins the best.
The next time in which a similar situation will be presented, the plant that has exceeded the obstacle will be able to implement more efficient strategies, with less attempts and less errors. They will immediately know what it is good to do.
Undoubtedly fascinating this amount of data and how this will influence neuroscience we will see it. Meanwhile, while Dieter Volkmann and colleagues think about how the neurons of the plants can constitute experimental models to identify care against degenerative diseases and the scholars of relational psychology are struggling to set up a model that reconciles the fauna and floral world, it is good that I remember to water less my geraniums and put in the darling. The temperatures begin to drop.
