A New Approach to the Study of Electric Fields produced by Growing Roots

McAulay, A. L.; Scott, Bih

doi:10.1038/174924a0

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Both seedling shoots and roots maintain bioelectric fields around themselves (Lund, ; McAulay & Scott, ; Scott & Martin, ). The fields have a distinct polarity with different regions exhibiting different potential differences (e.g., shoot and root tips are more negative than base).…”

Section: Bioelectric Fields As a Basis For Plant Learning And Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Are plants sentient?

Calvo

Sahi

Trewavas

2017

Plant Cell & Environment

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Feelings in humans are mental states representing groups of physiological functions that usually have defined behavioural purposes. Feelings, being evolutionarily ancient, are thought to be coordinated in the brain stem of animals. One function of the brain is to prioritise between competing mental states and, thus, groups of physiological functions and in turn behaviour. Plants use groups of coordinated physiological activities to deal with defined environmental situations but currently have no known mental state to prioritise any order of response. Plants do have a nervous system based on action potentials transmitted along phloem conduits but which in addition, through anastomoses and other cross-links, forms a complex network. The emergent potential for this excitable network to form a mental state is unknown, but it might be used to distinguish between different and even contradictory signals to the individual plant and thus determine a priority of response. This plant nervous system stretches throughout the whole plant providing the potential for assessment in all parts and commensurate with its self-organising, phenotypically plastic behaviour. Plasticity may, in turn, depend heavily on the instructive capabilities of local bioelectric fields enabling both a degree of behavioural independence but influenced by the condition of the whole plant.

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Section: Bioelectric Fields As a Basis For Plant Learning And Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Are plants sentient?

Calvo

Sahi

Trewavas

2017

Plant Cell & Environment

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“…Both shoots and roots maintain a bioelectric field around themselves (Lund, 1947; McAulay and 468 Scott, 1954;Scott and Martin, 1962). The field has a distinct polarity with different regions 469 exhibiting different potential differences (e.g shoot and root tip more negative than base).…”

Section: Is This Excitable Electrical System Primed For Response and mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However one of the most important observations is that both root and shoot bioelectric fields 476 oscillate by some 30mV in size and with frequencies from 4--15 minutes in roots and 10 to 50 477 minutes in shoots (Lund, 1947;MacAulay and Scott 1954). Oscillations are usually driven by forms of 478 negative feedback and in this case issuing from the fluctuations of ion flux into and out of cells.…”

Section: Is This Excitable Electrical System Primed For Response and mentioning

confidence: 99%

Could Plants Be Sentient?

Calvo

Sahi

Trewavas

2017

Preprint

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Feelings in humans are mental states representing groups of physiological functions that usually have defined behavioural objectives or purpose. Feelings are thought to be coordinated in the brain stem of animals and are evolutionarily ancient. One function of the brain is to prioritise between competing mental states, and thus groups of physiological functions and in turn behaviour. Anger, fear or pain call for immediate action whereas hunger, or thirst, signify longer term needs and a requirement for search. Plants use groups of coordinated physiological activities to deal with defined environmental situations but currently have no known mental state to prioritise any order of response. Plants do have a nervous system based on phloem which is highly cross linked. Its potential for forming a mental state is unknown but it could be used to distinguish between different and even contradictory signals and thus determine a priority of response. The vascular nervous system stretches throughout the whole plant providing the potential for assessment in all parts and commensurate with its self-organising, phenotypically plastic behaviour.

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“…It has been shown (Scott, McAulay, and Jeyes 1955) that the normal steady potential of a root growing actively in a weak solution of potassium chloride is most negative in a region close to the root tip with the top of the root most strongly positive. Oscillatory variations with periods of the order of 5 min are found in some cases to be superimposed on this steady background potential pattern (McAulay and Scott 1954;Scott 1957; . Jenkinson and Scott 1961).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%