Parise André Geremia, Oliveira Thiago Francisco de Carvalho, Debono Marc-Williams, Souza Gustavo Maia
School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AH, UK.
Laboratory of Plant Cognition and Electrophysiology (LACEV), Department of Botany, Institute of Biology, Federal University of Pelotas, Capão do Leão 96160-000, RS, Brazil.
Plants (Basel). 2023 May 16;12(10):2005. doi: 10.3390/plants12102005.
Selective attention is an important cognitive phenomenon that allows organisms to flexibly engage with certain environmental cues or activities while ignoring others, permitting optimal behaviour. It has been proposed that selective attention can be present in many different animal species and, more recently, in plants. The phenomenon of attention in plants would be reflected in its electrophysiological activity, possibly being observable through electrophytographic (EPG) techniques. Former EPG time series obtained from the parasitic plant in a putative state of attention towards two different potential hosts, the suitable bean () and the unsuitable wheat (), were revisited. Here, we investigated the potential existence of different band frequencies (including low, delta, theta, mu, alpha, beta, and gamma waves) using a protocol adapted from neuroscientific research. Average band power (ABP) was used to analyse the energy distribution of each band frequency in the EPG signals, and time dispersion analysis of features (TDAF) was used to explore the variations in the energy of each band. Our findings indicated that most band waves were centred in the lower frequencies. We also observed that invested more energy in these low-frequency waves when suitable hosts were present. However, we also noted peaks of energy investment in all the band frequencies, which may be linked to extremely low oscillatory electrical signals in the entire tissue. Overall, the presence of suitable hosts induced a higher energy power, which supports the hypothesis of attention in plants. We further discuss and compare our results with generic neural systems.
选择性注意是一种重要的认知现象，它使生物体能够灵活地关注某些环境线索或活动，同时忽略其他线索或活动，从而实现最佳行为。有人提出，选择性注意可能存在于许多不同的动物物种中，最近还发现植物也有这种现象。植物的注意现象可能会在其电生理活动中得到体现，通过植物电图（EPG）技术或许可以观察到。我们重新审视了以前从寄生植物获取的EPG时间序列，该寄生植物被假定处于对两种不同潜在宿主（合适的豆类和不合适的小麦）的注意状态。在这里，我们采用了一种改编自神经科学研究的方案，研究了不同频段频率（包括低频、δ波、θ波、μ波、α波、β波和γ波）存在的可能性。平均频段功率（ABP）用于分析EPG信号中每个频段频率的能量分布，特征时间离散分析（TDAF）用于探索每个频段能量的变化。我们的研究结果表明，大多数频段波集中在较低频率。我们还观察到，当存在合适的宿主时，寄生植物在这些低频波上投入了更多能量。然而，我们也注意到在所有频段频率上都有能量投入峰值，这可能与整个组织中极低的振荡电信号有关。总体而言，合适宿主的存在会诱导更高的能量功率，这支持了植物存在注意现象的假设。我们进一步讨论了我们的结果，并将其与一般神经系统进行了比较。
