Plants may think with their whole body, not a brain
Lin Y
Plant Signaling
The vine that reroutes around a trellis post or the root that dodges a rock isn't reacting blindly, it's coordinating information across its whole structure the way scientists now study in soft robots.
Researchers are pulling together decades of scattered observations to argue that plants show a kind of intelligence that doesn't need a brain. Instead, it comes from how roots, stems, and leaves work together and respond to their environment, similar to how an octopus solves problems using its arms instead of a central brain. The idea is that a plant's whole body, spread out and decentralized, can sense risk, remember past events, and make decisions about where to grow next.
Key Findings
Proposes 'plant embodied intelligence' as a new research framework built on adaptive growth, distributed memory, ecological communication, and risk-based decision-making
Draws on plant neurobiology, systems biology, and bio-inspired robotics to identify where current research falls short
Recommends combining quantitative phenotyping, molecular systems biology, ecological modeling, and plant-inspired robotics to test the framework going forward
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists argue that plants solve problems the way octopus arms or robot swarms do: not with a brain, but through coordinated action across roots, stems, and leaves responding to their surroundings in real time.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Plant embodied intelligence: A paradigmatic perspective.
The concept of intelligence is expanding beyond neural systems to include plants. Following this trend, we turn our focus on a key but undeveloped branch-plant embodied intelligence (PEI), where ad...
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