ABOVE: Mimosa species are a model system studied in plant neurobiology for their movements in response to physical stimuli. Their leaves close in response to touch.
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Plant biologists argue that plants are definitively not conscious, in a paper published in Trends in Plant Science on July 3. They are pushing back against researchers who study plant neurobiology and have argued that plants have the ability to learn, respond to their environment, and have a form of consciousness.
Plant neurobiology debuted in the same journal in 2006 with a review paper. The initial resistance to the field was based on the name, as neurobiology implies having a nervous system, which plants don’t have, according to the latest report. “There is no evidence that plants require, and thus have evolved, energy-expensive mental faculties, such as consciousness, feelings, and intentionality, to survive or to reproduce,” the authors write.
The authors argue ...
