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HughPickens.com [hughpickens.com] writes:

Scientists have discovered that plants may be smarter than you think as Joanna Klein writes in the NYT that new research has discovered that plants can make risky decisions that are as sophisticated as those made by humans [nytimes.com], all without brains or complex nervous systems and they may even judge risks more efficiently than we do. Researchers showed that when faced with the choice between a pot containing constant levels of nutrients or one with unpredictable levels, when conditions are sufficiently poor a plant will pick the mystery pot. “In bad conditions, the only chance of success is to take a chance and hope it works out, and that’s what the plants are doing,” says Nick Chater. The team took pea plants and split their roots among two pots. Both pots contained the same average levels of nutrients, but while nutrients in one pot remained at a steady level, nutrients in the other pot varied over the course of the three-month experiment. After three months, the researchers weighed the roots in each of the pots. They found that when average nutrient levels were low, the peas grew more roots in the variable pot. On the other hand, when nutrient levels were high, the plants favored the steady pot. “It raises a question, not about plants, but about animals and humans, because if plants can solve this problem simply,” then maybe humans can, too, says Hagai Shemesh. “We have a very fancy brain, but maybe most of the time we’re not using it.”

This complex behavior in a plant supports an idea, known as risk sensitivity theory, that scientists have long had trouble testing in insects and animals. It states that when choosing between stable and uncertain outcomes, an organism will play it safe when things are going well, and take risks when times are hard [the-scientist.com]. Risk sensitivity theory explains why people gamble more when they’re losing money [livescience.com], or why birds that must eat enough food to survive a cold night will forage not knowing what they’ll find, rather than settle for a certain, but insufficient amount of food. In terms of risk-sensitivity theory, Alex Kacelnik says the plants “did exactly what was expected from them.” In fact, Kacelnik added, “the plants have behaved even more clearly, with respect to risk, than we actually have found in animals.” How brainless pea plants evaluate risk is still unclear, but Shemesh thinks they must be following simple rules, not reasoning. “Even if you have no cognition or fancy nervous system, you can still get some pretty complicated behavior.”

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