Despite Having No Brain This Fungus Can Recognize Shapes & Make Decisions

Can organisms without a brain show signs of intelligence?

It turns out that yes, some can. And once again, it is fungi making scientists rethink everything.

Researchers at Tohoku University and Nagaoka College conducted a study to measure the decision making processes in fungi, and in doing so revealed complex and intelligent behaviors in the specimen they observed. These groundbreaking results challenge our current understanding of cognition in simple organisms. 

The researchers were studying an obscure fungus called Phanerochaete velutina, a plant pathogen that infects peach and nectarine trees. Through their experiments they discovered that the fungus could not only recognize shapes, but even communicate information about its surrounding environment across its entire mycelium network. 

Mycelium: The Underground Fungal Network

Before we continue with the fascinating fungi findings, here’s a little refresher on what mycelium actually is:

Fungi grow and reproduce by releasing spores, which (hopefully) germinate and turn into long, white, spidery threads beneath the ground. This is called mycelium. When you see a mushroom sprouting from the ground, you may not realize that there is a vast network of interconnected mycelium beneath it. The mushroom is simply the ‘flower’ of the organism, for reproduction — it is certainly not all of the fungus! It is through this wispy mycelium network that information can be shared, rather like neural connections in the brain.

“You’d be surprised at just how much fungi are capable of…”

In a statement, Yu Fukasawa, Tohoku University forest ecology associate professor, said;

“You’d be surprised at just how much fungi are capable of…They have memories, they learn, and they can make decisions. Quite frankly, the differences in how they solve problems compared to humans is mind-blowing.”

How Did the Study Work?

The experiments, detailed in a paper published in the journal Fungal Ecology, went as follows;

Fukasawa and his colleagues arranged small wood blocks in different shapes and formations, and let a network of  P. veluntina mycelium (which loves to munch on wood) have their fill. 

This is where it got really interesting… The researchers observed that the mycelium appeared to be making purposeful decisions depending on how the wooden blocks were arranged. Rather than simply spreading from a central point without consideration for the position of the wooden blocks, they followed their formation.. The researchers suggest that this suggests a rudimentary level of intelligence and decision making skills. 

The Fungus Could Recognize Shapes

The researchers observed that the fungus seemed to be able to recognize shapes. For example, when the blocks were arranged in a cross pattern, the mycelium recognized where the outermost blocks were and appeared to communicate the arrangement back to the rest of its network. The degree of connection was greater in these outermost blocks, which lead the researchers to hypothesize that these blocks served as “outposts” for the mycelial network to carry out foraging expeditions, as these would need a denser connection.

Then, when the blocks were arranged in a circle formationt, the mycelium did not make the effort to grow into the center, which suggested that it had worked out that there were no blocks to eat there. Additionally the degree of the connection was the same for each block, as the blocks were equally spaced from the center.

“These findings suggest that fungal mycelium can ‘recognize’ the difference in the spatial arrangement of wood blocks as part of their wood decay activity,” the researchers wrote. 

How Fungi Helps Us Understand the World

The researchers hope that their findings could lead to advancements in a variety of fields. This includes the study of other microscopic organisms such as slime molds (which have similarly exhibited basic levels of intelligence), to biological computers that are powered by organoid brain cultures. 

They added;

“The functional significance of the fungal mycelia may provide insights into studying the primitive intelligence of brainless organisms, understanding its ecological impacts, and developing bio-based computers,” 

Currently, our comprehension of the fungi world is quite limited, a mystery when compared to our understanding of plants and animals. Research like this could help us to unravel great unknowns, such as how consciousness and cognition evolved in organisms. There is so much we do not know about the universe, and it seems that fungi may help us in our quest for understanding.