Journal article
Do plants pay attention? A possible phenomenological-empirical approach
Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Vol.173, pp.11-23
09/2022
PMID: 35636584
Metrics
15 Record Views
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites
Abstract
Attention is the important ability of flexibly controlling limited cognitive resources. It ensures that organisms engage with the activities and stimuli that are relevant to their survival. Despite the cognitive capabilities of plants and their complex behavioural repertoire, the study of attention in plants has been largely neglected. In this article, we advance the hypothesis that plants are endowed with the ability of attaining attentive states. We depart from a transdisciplinary basis of philosophy, psychology, physics and plant ecophysiology to propose a framework that seeks to explain how plant attention might operate and how it could be studied empirically. In particular, the phenomenological approach seems particularly important to explain plant attention theoretically, and plant electrophysiology seems particularly suited to study it empirically. We propose the use of electrophysiological techniques as a viable way for studying it, and we revisit previous work to support our hypothesis. We conclude this essay with some remarks on future directions for the study of plant attention and its implications to botany.
•Plants could present attention to certain actions and environmental cues.•Plant attention would allow the processing of information when cognitive capabilities are limited.•Plant attention is proposed to happen through synchronisation of the electrical signalling of plant modules.•Methods to observe plant attention empirically through electrophysiological analyses are proposed.
Details
- Title
- Do plants pay attention? A possible phenomenological-empirical approach
- Creators
- André Geremia Parise - Federal University of PelotasGabriel Ricardo Aguilera de Toledo - Federal University of PelotasThiago Francisco de Carvalho Oliveira - Federal University of PelotasGustavo Maia Souza - Federal University of PelotasUmberto Castiello - Neuroscience of Movement Laboratory (NEMO), Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, ItalyMonica Gagliano - Southern Cross UniversityMichael Marder - Ikerbasque: Basque Foundation for Science & Department of Philosophy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain
- Publication Details
- Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Vol.173, pp.11-23
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ltd
- Identifiers
- 991013027284102368
- Copyright
- © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering; Science
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article