Are fungi conscious?

New research on fungi suggests they could be demonstrating some form of intelligence, but not all experts are convinced

- by HAYLEY BENNETT

To most of us, mushrooms are just weird-looking woodland growths, and a fungus is something you probably need a cream for. Increasingly though, scientists are describing fungi as more sophisticated than we previously thought. Some even say 'intelligent', with a few researchers going so far as to hint they might be conscious.

While such theories are controversial among experts, the rest of us would like to know if, for instance, our breakfast ingredients are thinking about us. So, what should we make of such reports?

Biologists have long argued over whether animals like fish and bats are conscious. But now brainless beings like plants, slime moulds and fungi are getting caught up in the debate. And there's certainly more to mushrooms than meets the eye, as Cecelia Stokes, a PhD fungi researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the US, explains. Below ground, mushrooms are attached to a mycelium web of wire-like filaments, called 'hyphae' that stretch through the soil to seek out food and mates. The mushrooms, above ground, are the fruiting body — the fungi's sporespreading reproductive organs.

"[Fungi have] developed a really efficient and effective way of navigating minute changes in their environment," says Stokes. "And that alone - doing it without a central nervous system or a brain – is amazing." Whether this kind of behaviour demonstrates intelligence, she isn't sure, but she says it might be "worth considering" a wider definition of the term, given that it's already being applied to the non-living, as with artificial intelligence, for instance.

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Fungi have gone up in our estimations in recent years, following claims that their hyphae form nutrient-swapping networks with trees that connect up the forest – the so-called 'wood wide web' theory. And they've gained some street cred as the agents of a zombie apocalypse in the popular video game and HBO show, The Last of Us