Plants as electromic plastic interfaces: A mesological approach

Debono, Marc-Williams; Souza, Gustavo Maia

doi:10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2019.02.007

Cited by 32 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 61 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Under certain conditions, they can push them towards a self-organized critical state (SOC or self-organized criticality) representative of nonlinear dynamic systems [9,10]. The working hypothesis that we support regarding these SOCs is that a constant EPG monitoring of plants would allow to discriminate and manage environmental stimuli in real time (water supply during drought, new climatological conditions, interaction with neighboring species, osmotic shock, stress...) in order to ensure the plant optimal growth in its environment (Debono and Souza 2019) [11]. As a result, the EPGs -whose power density spectrum (PSD) and mathematical analysis of autocorrelations respectively show a distribution according to the power law -, SOCs and nonlinear dynamic behaviors include different patterns and colored noises.…”

Section: Signature Of the Electrome: Self-organized Complex (Soc) Andmentioning

confidence: 69%

“…However, the management of these flows takes place precisely at the plant-environment interface, which is distinguished by its locality and its singularity of exchanges with the environment. As we have recently shown it, plants are hypersensitive ecoplastic interfaces to the environment, defining a form of plasticity that is neither purely phenotypic nor epigenetic, but mesological [11,1], that is to say an intrinsically and inseparable subjects (and not an automata) from thier local ecosystem. This hypothesis is linked to the ecophenomenological approaches of Berque who establishes for living systems, a matrix-imprint relationship or medial relation between the being and its environment subjected to trajection.…”

Section: The Mesological Plasticity Of Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As recently published, in this context, we assimilate plants to plastic interfaces having an "electromic" nature (that is to say using primarily the electric dimension of life) [2] and that can display cognitive abilities (in the biological meaning of the term) into interactive ecosystems [11]. In addition to facilitating the transfer of information via membrane bioelectric networks and ion channels or symplasmatic gap junction, this ability to discriminate and respond quickly and efficiently to environmental stimuli on the scale of the whole plant, would avoid the mobilization of sub-structures and could explain the apparent functioning unit of the plant, especially in face of a new situation, despite its functional modularity, its impermanence or its versatility and its non-individuality.…”

Section: The Mesological Plasticity Of Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The presence of these electrophytograms or EPGs has recently been validated by several independent international teams, including those of Masi et al [7] (spatiotemporal course of spontaneous EPGs and synchronization of long-distance spikes recorded by MEA 60 channels on roots of maize, 2009); of Cabral et al (modeling of complex oscillatory bioelectric signals, 2011) [8] and Saraiva et al and Souza et al, (2017) (recording of spontaneous EPGs and spikelets induced after osmotic shocks by high resolution spectral analysis on shoots of soy) [9,10] with whom we are now collaborating (Toledo et al 2019, Debono and Souza, 2019) [2,11]. In all these models and with different technologies, long-term EPG recordings with the same signal-to-noise ratio, complex oscillatory behaviors and similar reactivity to stimuli were found.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…and problem solving in a given environment. More generally, the results of our pioneering work [5] republished in 2013 in PSB [6] and new approaches in collaboration with the team of Prof. Souza from the University of Pelotas (Brazil) [11] support the hypothesis of a vegetal cognition by showing that a behavioral unit -which is not taken for granted in plants where the process of individuation is not a key factor in evolution -can be observed via hypersensitive integrated biological systems anchored in the environment. If chemical communication is fundamental in inter-as well as intra-species exchanges in plants, our working hypothesis is that the bioelectric continuum provided by continuous EPG surface monitoring (EPGs) and its underlying synchronized networks allows us to link active perceptions, although not conscious with actions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Electrome & Cognition Modes in Plants: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Eco-Sensitiveness of the World

Debono¹

2020

tjes

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent studies on plant-environment and plant-human relationships reveal the need to reassess thescales of perception, sensitiveness and cognition of living systems. The complexity of plant's emergingbehaviors in interaction with the environment is supported by the signature of the electrome and theplant sensorium, a strong argument to establish the singularity of the living and weights its consequencesin evolutionary, ecological or socioeconomic terms. This paper highlights the cognitive value of access tothe experience of plants and its fundamentally mesological or ecoplastic nature, that is to say in directconnection with a singular milieu. This dynamic coupling makes it possible to explain the co-construction ofan intelligible and sensible world without the use of a brain, principle that reframes the concept of intelligentbehavior while revealing both the frontiers in cognition and the strong transdisciplinary challenges of anacute awareness of the man's fragility as of the planetary ecosystem at the era of the Antropocene.

show abstract

Section: Signature Of the Electrome: Self-organized Complex (Soc) Andmentioning

confidence: 69%

Section: The Mesological Plasticity Of Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Mesological Plasticity Of Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 96%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Electrome & Cognition Modes in Plants: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Eco-Sensitiveness of the World

Debono¹

2020

tjes

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Consciousness and cognition in plants

Segundo-Ortin

Calvo

2021

WIRES Cognitive Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Unlike animal behavior, behavior in plants is traditionally assumed to be completely determined either genetically or environmentally. Under this assumption, plants are usually considered to be noncognitive organisms. This view nonetheless clashes with a growing body of empirical research that shows that many sophisticated cognitive capabilities traditionally assumed to be exclusive to animals are exhibited by plants too. Yet, if plants can be considered cognitive, even in a minimal sense, can they also be considered conscious? Some authors defend that the quest for plant consciousness is worth pursuing, under the premise that sentience can play a role in facilitating plant's sophisticated behavior. The goal of this article is not to provide a positive argument for plant cognition and consciousness, but to invite a constructive, empirically informed debate about it. After reviewing the empirical literature concerning plant cognition, we introduce the reader to the emerging field of plant neurobiology. Research on plant electrical and chemical signaling can help shed light into the biological bases for plant sentience. To conclude, we shall present a series of approaches to scientifically investigate plant consciousness. In sum, we invite the reader to consider the idea that if consciousness boils down to some form of biological adaptation, we should not exclude a priori the possibility that plants have evolved their own phenomenal experience of the world.

show abstract

Mesological Plasticity as a New Model to Study Plant Cognition, Interactive Ecosystems, and Self-Organized Evolutionary Processes

Debono¹

2022

Evolutionary Biology – New Perspectives on Its Development

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The plasticity of living systems acts at several levels of evolutionary biology including self-organization, phenotypic, phylo-, onto-and epigenetic processes, while mesology is an approach situated in between ecology and phenomenology. After a description of the specific objects of plasticity and mesology as non-dualist studies of the dynamical coupling between beings and their singular milieu, we will develop some arguments regarding the perception-action loop and the sensory flux of informations crossing the evolution of the living, before focusing on recent discoveries about plant electrome. Using for the first time mesological plasticity as a frame to reanalyze the Uexcküll's assertions about Umwelt and meaning-making theories of plants, this chapter shows the leading rule of electromic interfaces in the generation of spontaneous low-voltage variations continuously emitted by plants via electrophytographic or EPG recordings. Used as early markers, EPGs are considered in this framework as natural systems of monitoring and discrimination of environmental stimuli that allow the identification of the electromic signature of a plant-stimulus pair in a given milieu.More generally, we will develop the trajections associated with complex behaviours of plants: a bottom-up transdisciplinary view of co-evolutionary or ecosemiotic processes highlighting their specific sensitive fields and cognitive accesses to experience (their otherness) as well as new phenomenologies about interactive ecosystems and phytosemiotics.

show abstract

Plants as electromic plastic interfaces: A mesological approach

Cited by 32 publications

References 61 publications

Electrome & Cognition Modes in Plants: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Eco-Sensitiveness of the World

Electrome & Cognition Modes in Plants: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Eco-Sensitiveness of the World

Consciousness and cognition in plants

Mesological Plasticity as a New Model to Study Plant Cognition, Interactive Ecosystems, and Self-Organized Evolutionary Processes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About