New research reveals differences between species, described as having their own languages, formed through trains of electricity spikes, with each “language” typically having about 50 trains, equivalent to words.
Computer scientist Andrew Adamatzky from the University of the West of England analyzed electrical activity from four species of fungi and published his findings last Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science. He found that spikes in electrical activity were used by fungi to communicate and transmit information to other fungi in their network.
Underneath each mushroom lies hyphae, which are underground root-like structures that can be likened to nerve cells in the human nervous system. When hyphae form a network, called a mycelium, this can facilitate communication between fungi.
The study found that the spikes in the electrical signals generated by fungi can resemble a language. The spikes can be grouped in to “words” and “sentences,” and according to the study, these fungi can have a vocabulary of up to 50 “words.”
“There’s a big body of evidence that’s growing that these hyphae are sending some kinds of signals between individuals … communicating about where resources are, where the food is, and maybe having tripped-out mushroom-like conversations with each other too,” Technology Specialist Dan Riskin explained.