Study Finds Moss Cushions Generate Neural-Like Electrical Waves Across 1 Common Species
Updated
Updated · ScienceAlert · Jul 21
Study Finds Moss Cushions Generate Neural-Like Electrical Waves Across 1 Common Species
2 articles · Updated · ScienceAlert · Jul 21
Summary
Royal Society Open Science published Andy Adamatzky’s study showing cushions of Brachythecium rutabulum produce complex electrical activity, including dynamic waves that spread across an entire moss patch.
Multi-day electrode recordings from samples collected in North Somerset found fast oscillatory spikes, slower rhythmic fluctuations, very slow depolarization waves, and some high-amplitude signals resembling action potentials and neuron-like spike trains.
Those patterns suggest moss acts as a spatially distributed, interconnected excitable system rather than a set of independent cells, raising the possibility that colonies coordinate signals across space and time.
Key limits remain: the study lacked negative-control recordings on inert material, and wild-collected moss may have introduced contamination, uneven hydration, or other factors affecting the signals.
Adamatzky says the findings could support future work on biohybrid sensing or unconventional computing, but the paper stops short of proving moss functions as a practical sensory network or computing substrate.