Monica Gagliano

Last updated
Monica Gagliano
Monica Gagliano 2018.png
Alma mater James Cook University
Region Plant cognition
School Evolutionary ecology
Phenomenology
Website www.monicagagliano.com

Monica Gagliano (born 1976) [1] is an ecologist known for expanding the field of biological research into the intelligence of plants.

Contents

Gagliano is a Research Associate Professor in the field of evolutionary ecology at Southern Cross University in Lismore, Australia, where she directs the Biological Intelligence lab. [2] She is a former fellow of the Australian Research Council. [3] Through her research with plants, she “has extended the concept of cognition (including perception, learning processes, memory) in plants.” [2] She has worked to expand how the public view plants, and all of nature, in respect of their subjectivity and sentience. [4] [5] [6] Gagliano grew up in northern Italy. [7]

Career

Gagliano trained as a marine ecologist. [8] As a postdoctoral fellow at James Cook University in 2008, she was researching Ambon damselfish ( Pomacentrus amboinensis ) at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. As part of her research, she was required to kill and dissect the fish at the end of the study. The fish were used to her presence and would swim in and out of her hand daily, but on the last morning, when she visited them to say goodbye, they refused to come out of their crevices and greet her, as if they knew what she intended. This produced an ethical and professional crisis for Gagliano. She completed the study but vowed not to kill in the name of science again. She left animal science and entered plant science. Her sense that the fish understood what she was doing set her on a course of studying sentience in other life forms. [9] [10] [11] [12]

Gagliano is a researcher in the field of plant cognition. [13] Her most well-known study, from 2014, investigated learning and memory in Mimosa pudica. [14] Mimosa plants typically fold their leaves at the slightest disturbance. Gagliano's study showed that Mimosa plants no longer folded their leaves after being dropped in the same way repeatedly. They habituated to the disturbance, and habituation is an elementary form of learning. [15] [16] In 2016 Gagliano showed that the common garden pea ( Pisum sativum ) demonstrated learning by association. That is, in the same way that Pavlov's dog learned to associate the sound of a bell ringing with food, the pea plant learned to associate an unrelated stimulus, in this case moving air from a fan, with plant "food," namely, light. [17] As a way of further investigating plant cognition, in 2022 she and a research team posited that plants are able to pay attention and suggested using a phenomenological-empirical approach to test this hypothesis. [18]

Gagliano has extended the field of bioacoustics to plants. In 2012 she showed corn plants emitting sounds. [19] In 2017 she showed that the roots of pea plant ( Pisum sativum ) sensed a water source through sound cues. [20]

Gagliano advocates for comparing learning in plants to learning in animals, challenging the conventional scientific boundary between beings with brains and beings without them. In a 2013 presentation Gagliano argued that the same habituation that the Mimosa plants showed, when it is observed in animals, is called “learning,” and therefore researchers need to “use the same language to describe the same behavior.” [21] She told New Scientist in 2018, “Whether it is an animal, a plant or bacteria, if it ticks the boxes that we agree define learning, then that is what it is doing." [10] In a 2015 journal article she addressed common theoretical problems that lead researchers not to research intelligence in plants and suggested solutions to these barriers of thought. [22]

Gagliano is an advocate for stronger ethical standards in scientific protocols for working with both plants and animals. In 2020 she and several animal behavior scientists, concerned that current practices of conventional science do not go far enough in guaranteeing the welfare of animals, plants, or ecosystems, suggested criteria to deepen researchers’ ethical commitment to nonhuman welfare. Their suggestions include using language that respects sentience in animals; emphasizing aspects of experience that are important to the animal being studied (such as the importance of smell to dogs); and incorporating unconventional sources of knowledge, such as Indigenous knowing and personal relationships with the beings under study. [23]

In addition to her Western scientific training and research, Gagliano has also trained with Peruvian plant shamans, following established shamanic protocols to learn how to communicate directly with plants. She credits plants with suggesting designs for lab experiments and collaborating with her to solve research problems. [8] [24]

Michael Pollan’s 2013 article in the New Yorker, “The Intelligent Plant,” introduced Gagliano’s work to a wide audience and reignited popular interest in, and discussion about, plant cognition. [25] [26]

Artist and writer James Bridle discussed Gagliano’s work in his book Ways of Being (2022). [27] In his 2023 interview with Emergence magazine he called her work “hugely influential” to him. [28]

Novelist Richard Powers, author of The Overstory , and Monica Gagliano participated in a conversation on “Plant Intelligence” at the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth College in 2020. [4]

Indigenous botanist and professor Robin Wall Kimmerer and Monica Gagliano were interviewed on the Bioneers podcast. [29]

Gagliano was one of six people studying various aspects of consciousness who were profiled in the 2021 documentary Aware .

Books

Edited books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sentience</span> Ability to be aware of feelings and sensations

Sentience is the simplest or most primitive form of cognition, consisting of a conscious awareness of stimuli without association or interpretation. The word was first coined by philosophers in the 1630s for the concept of an ability to feel, derived from Latin sentiens (feeling), to distinguish it from the ability to think (reason).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stevan Harnad</span> Canadian cognitive scientist (born 1945)

Stevan Robert Harnad is a Canadian cognitive scientist based in Montreal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Learning</span> Process of acquiring new knowledge

Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, non-human animals, and some machines; there is also evidence for some kind of learning in certain plants. Some learning is immediate, induced by a single event, but much skill and knowledge accumulate from repeated experiences. The changes induced by learning often last a lifetime, and it is hard to distinguish learned material that seems to be "lost" from that which cannot be retrieved.

Artificial consciousness (AC), also known as machine consciousness (MC), synthetic consciousness or digital consciousness, is the consciousness hypothesized to be possible in artificial intelligence. It is also the corresponding field of study, which draws insights from philosophy of mind, philosophy of artificial intelligence, cognitive science and neuroscience. The same terminology can be used with the term "sentience" instead of "consciousness" when specifically designating phenomenal consciousness.

Irene Maxine Pepperberg is an American scientist noted for her studies in animal cognition, particularly in relation to parrots. She has been a professor, researcher and/or lecturer at multiple universities, and she is currently an Adjunct Research Professor at Boston University. Pepperberg also serves on the Advisory Council of METI. She is well known for her comparative studies into the cognitive fundamentals of language and communication, and she was one of the first to work on language learning in animals other than human species, by extension to a bird species. Pepperberg is also active in wildlife conservation, especially in relation to parrots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animal cognition</span> Intelligence of non-human animals

Animal cognition encompasses the mental capacities of non-human animals including insect cognition. The study of animal conditioning and learning used in this field was developed from comparative psychology. It has also been strongly influenced by research in ethology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology; the alternative name cognitive ethology is sometimes used. Many behaviors associated with the term animal intelligence are also subsumed within animal cognition.

Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the ability to perceive or infer information; and to retain it as knowledge to be applied to adaptive behaviors within an environment or context.

Habituation is a form of non-associative learning in which a non-reinforced response to a stimulus decreases after repeated or prolonged presentations of that stimulus. For example, organisms may habituate to repeated sudden loud noises when they learn these have no consequences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bioacoustics</span> Study of sound relating to biology

Bioacoustics is a cross-disciplinary science that combines biology and acoustics. Usually it refers to the investigation of sound production, dispersion and reception in animals. This involves neurophysiological and anatomical basis of sound production and detection, and relation of acoustic signals to the medium they disperse through. The findings provide clues about the evolution of acoustic mechanisms, and from that, the evolution of animals that employ them.

<i>Mimosa pudica</i> Species of plant whose leaves fold inward and droop when touched or shaken

Mimosa pudica is a creeping annual or perennial flowering plant of the pea/legume family Fabaceae. It is often grown for its curiosity value: the sensitive compound leaves fold inward and droop when touched or shaken and re-open a few minutes later. It is well known for its rapid plant movement. Like a number of other plant species, it undergoes changes in leaf orientation termed "sleep" or nyctinastic movement. The foliage closes during darkness and reopens in light. This was first studied by French scientist Jean-Jacques d'Ortous. In the UK it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

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Plant perception is the ability of plants to sense and respond to the environment by adjusting their morphology and physiology. Botanical research has revealed that plants are capable of reacting to a broad range of stimuli, including chemicals, gravity, light, moisture, infections, temperature, oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations, parasite infestation, disease, physical disruption, sound, and touch. The scientific study of plant perception is informed by numerous disciplines, such as plant physiology, ecology, and molecular biology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animal consciousness</span> Quality or state of self-awareness within an animal

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pain in crustaceans</span> Ethical debate

There is a scientific debate which questions whether crustaceans experience pain. It is a complex mental state, with a distinct perceptual quality but also associated with suffering, which is an emotional state. Because of this complexity, the presence of pain in an animal, or another human for that matter, cannot be determined unambiguously using observational methods, but the conclusion that animals experience pain is often inferred on the basis of likely presence of phenomenal consciousness which is deduced from comparative brain physiology as well as physical and behavioural reactions.

Plant cognition or plant gnosophysiology is the study of the learning and memory of plants, exploring the idea it is not only animals that are capable of detecting, responding to and learning from internal and external stimuli in order to choose and make decisions that are most appropriate to ensure survival. Over recent years, experimental evidence for the cognitive nature of plants has grown rapidly and has revealed the extent to which plants can use senses and cognition to respond to their environments. Some researchers claim that plants process information in similar ways as animal nervous systems. The implications are contested; whether plants have cognition or are simply animated objects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pain in cephalopods</span> Contentious issue

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Nervous Mechanism of Plants</span> Botany book by Jagadish Chandra Bose

“The Nervous Mechanism of Plants”, published in 1926, is a botany book by Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose which summarises his most recent findings in the area of plant physiology. Bose had previously investigated this topic in books such as Plant response as a means of physiological investigation from 1906, or The physiology of photosynthesis, published in 1924. In this book, he proposes that the response mechanisms of plants to stimuli are physiologically similar to those in animals.

References

  1. ↑ "Thus Spoke the Plant". LC Catalog. Library of Congress. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Associate Professor Monica Gagliano". Directory. Southern Cross University. 2 September 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  3. ↑ "Monica Gagliano". North Atlantic Books. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Monica Gagliano". ICE: Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth. Dartmouth College. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  5. ↑ "Monica Gagliano: Plant Intelligence and the Importance of Imagination In Science, 2018". Bioneers. 15 June 2019. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  6. ↑ "Monica Gagliano: How 'heretical' science revealed the intelligence of Nature". TEDxSydney 2021. TEDxTalks. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  7. ↑ Shechet, Ellie (26 August 2019). "Do Plants Have Something to Say?". New York Times. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  8. 1 2 Shechet, Ellie (26 August 2019). "Do Plants Have Something to Say?". New York Times. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  9. ↑ Shechet, Ellie (26 August 2019). "Do Plants Have Something to Say?". New York Times. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  10. 1 2 Howgego, Joshua. "Smarty plants: They can learn, adapt and remember without brains". New Scientist. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  11. ↑ Gagliano, Monica (2018). Thus Spoke the Plant: A Remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters with Plants. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. p. ix–xiii. ISBN   9781623172435.
  12. ↑ "Ep 13 with Monica Gagliano". Consciousness Live! channel. Richard Brown. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  13. ↑ Morris, Andréa. "A Mind Without A Brain: The Science Of Plant Intelligence Takes Root". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  14. ↑ Gagliano, Monica; Renton, Michael; Depczynski, Martial; Mancuso, Stefano (2014). "Experience teaches plants to learn faster and forget slower in environments where it matters". Oecologia. 175 (1): 63–72. doi:10.1007/s00442-013-2873-7. PMID   24390479. S2CID   253975419 . Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  15. ↑ Gagliano, Monica; Marder, Michael (13 August 2019). "What a plant learns. The curious case of Mimosa pudica". B1 Botany One. Annals of Botany Company. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  16. ↑ Krulwich, Robert (15 December 2015). "Can a Plant Remember? This One Seems to—Here's the Evidence". National Geographic Science. National Geographic. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  17. ↑ Gagliano, Monica; Vyazovskiy, Vladyslav V.; Borbély, Alexander A.; Grimonprez, Mavra; Depczynski, Martial (2 December 2016). "Learning by Association in Plants". Scientific Reports. 6 (38427): 38427. doi:10.1038/srep38427. PMC   5133544 . PMID   27910933.
  18. ↑ Parise, André Geremia; de Toledo, Gabriel Ricardo Aguilera; Oliveira, Thiago Francisco de Carvalho; Souza, Gustavo Maia; Gagliano, Monica; Marder, Michael (2022). "Do plants pay attention? A possible phenomenological-empirical approach". Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. 173: 11–23. doi:10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2022.05.008. PMID   35636584. S2CID   249165801 . Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  19. ↑ Gagliano, Monica; Mancuso, Stefano; Robert, Daniel (March 2012). "Towards Understanding Plant Bioacoustics". Trends in Plant Science. 17 (6): 323–25. doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2012.03.002. PMID   22445066 . Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  20. ↑ Gagliano, Monica; Grimonprez, Mavra; Depczynski, Martial; Renton, Michael (May 2017). "Tuned In: Plant Roots Use Sound to Locate Water". Oecologia. 184 (1): 151–60. doi:10.1007/s00442-017-3862-z. PMID   28382479. S2CID   5231736 . Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  21. ↑ Pollan, Michael (15 December 2013). "The Intelligent Plant". New Yorker. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  22. ↑ Gagliano, Monica (2015). "In a green frame of mind: perspectives on the behavioural ecology and cognitive nature of plants". AoB Plants. 7. doi:10.1093/aobpla/plu075. PMC   4287690 . PMID   25416727.
  23. ↑ Franks, Becca; Webb, Christine; Gagliano, Monica; Smuts, Barbara (2020). "Conventional science will not do justice to nonhuman interests: A fresh approach is required". Animal Sentience. 27 (17). doi: 10.51291/2377-7478.1552 . S2CID   214257748 . Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  24. ↑ Gagliano, Monica (2018). Thus Spoke the Plant: A Remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters with Plants. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. ISBN   9781623172435.
  25. ↑ Pollan, Michael (15 December 2013). "The Intelligent Plant". The New Yorker. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  26. ↑ Shecher, Ellie (26 August 2019). "Do Plants Have Something to Say?". New York Times. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  27. ↑ Bridle, James (2022). Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. pp. 71–75. ISBN   9780374601119.
  28. ↑ Vaughan-Lee, Emmanuel (6 December 2022). "An Ecological Technology: An Interview with James Bridle". Emergence Magazine. Kalliopeia Foundation. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  29. ↑ "Nature's Intelligence: Interviewing the Vegetable Mind with Robin Kimmerer and Monica Gagliano". Bioneers. 24 October 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
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