<story><title>Language of fungi derived from their electrical spiking activity</title><url>https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.211926</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>colechristensen</author><text>People tend to underestimate the ability of very simple systems to result in complex behavior. It is entirely possible that this ant hijacking is entirely done though a few very simple manipulations of the existing ant nervous system and more likely than a much more complex fungal brain replacement.</text></item><item><author>dilippkumar</author><text>&amp;gt; In all seriousness mushrooms COULD be conscious&lt;p&gt;There is a fungus [0]. that takes over a carpenter ant&amp;#x27;s brain and makes it climb up plants and clutch on to a leaf with it&amp;#x27;s jaw and hang down from it. The fungus then sprouts the fruiting body from the dangling ant and spreads its spores.&lt;p&gt;As an armchair theorist, anything that can interface with a brain and coordinate a nervous system to produce complicated movement has to be capable of computation at some level.&lt;p&gt;[0]. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis#Natural_products&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis#Na...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>bognition</author><text>Neuro PhD here.&lt;p&gt;I haven&amp;#x27;t read the entire paper but this citations stands out:
&amp;gt; Fungi also exhibit trains of action-potential-like spikes, detectable by intracellular and extracellular recordings&lt;p&gt;Action potentials are the fundamental signaling mechanism used by neurons [1]. Think of them as an electrical signal that a cell actively propagates.  Lots of cells use electrical potentials for signaling; however, most of them spread gradually or passively. Action potentials on the other hand the cell actively expends energy to send information quickly.&lt;p&gt;Really cool to see convergent biology (my personal guess) here. I can only imagine what new things we&amp;#x27;re going to learn about fungi and mycelium in the next few decades. In all seriousness mushrooms COULD be conscious.&lt;p&gt;1 - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Action_potential&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Action_potential&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>xg15</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;It is entirely possible that this ant hijacking is entirely done though a few very simple manipulations of the existing ant nervous system&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hasn&amp;#x27;t that been ruled out by now though?&lt;p&gt;(Content warning: Zombie ant fungus details)&lt;p&gt;I read articles about that fungus and I believe for a long time it was assumed that the fungus rewires something inside the ant&amp;#x27;s brain that makes it want to climb to the top of a grass blade etc. - so it would &amp;quot;only&amp;quot; manipulate the high-level goals of the ant but not control the more complex and dynamic low-level operations (such as walking or navigating) directly.&lt;p&gt;However, a few months ago there was a paper about more detailed research on the molecular mechanisms the fungus uses for the takeover. Turns out, the former hypothesis was wrong and in fact it &lt;i&gt;does&lt;/i&gt; control the ant&amp;#x27;s arms&amp;#x2F;legs directly. If that&amp;#x27;s true, then the fungus itself must somehow actively steer the ant towards the grass.</text></comment>
<story><title>Language of fungi derived from their electrical spiking activity</title><url>https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.211926</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>colechristensen</author><text>People tend to underestimate the ability of very simple systems to result in complex behavior. It is entirely possible that this ant hijacking is entirely done though a few very simple manipulations of the existing ant nervous system and more likely than a much more complex fungal brain replacement.</text></item><item><author>dilippkumar</author><text>&amp;gt; In all seriousness mushrooms COULD be conscious&lt;p&gt;There is a fungus [0]. that takes over a carpenter ant&amp;#x27;s brain and makes it climb up plants and clutch on to a leaf with it&amp;#x27;s jaw and hang down from it. The fungus then sprouts the fruiting body from the dangling ant and spreads its spores.&lt;p&gt;As an armchair theorist, anything that can interface with a brain and coordinate a nervous system to produce complicated movement has to be capable of computation at some level.&lt;p&gt;[0]. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis#Natural_products&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis#Na...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>bognition</author><text>Neuro PhD here.&lt;p&gt;I haven&amp;#x27;t read the entire paper but this citations stands out:
&amp;gt; Fungi also exhibit trains of action-potential-like spikes, detectable by intracellular and extracellular recordings&lt;p&gt;Action potentials are the fundamental signaling mechanism used by neurons [1]. Think of them as an electrical signal that a cell actively propagates.  Lots of cells use electrical potentials for signaling; however, most of them spread gradually or passively. Action potentials on the other hand the cell actively expends energy to send information quickly.&lt;p&gt;Really cool to see convergent biology (my personal guess) here. I can only imagine what new things we&amp;#x27;re going to learn about fungi and mycelium in the next few decades. In all seriousness mushrooms COULD be conscious.&lt;p&gt;1 - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Action_potential&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Action_potential&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yosito</author><text>&amp;gt;  It is entirely possible that this ant hijacking is entirely done though a few very simple manipulations&lt;p&gt;It is entirely possible that human motivations and reasoning are driven by similarly simple mechanisms. The best example I can think of is how much of an asshole I can be to my family when I&amp;#x27;m hangry.</text></comment>