communication – BioQuakes

For thousands of years language has been a crucial part of cultures around the world, and a method unique to humanity of transmitting ideas, thoughts, emotions between us. Language has allowed us to work harmoniously together for our mutual improvement and survival. Recently, however, two researchers, Dr. Kim Valenta and her colleague Omar Nevo, have discovered that plants too, have developed their own unique and intricate method of conveying information to their pollinators; “the easier it is for fruit eaters to identify ripe fruits, the better the chance for both [, the plant and the fruit,] to survive.

The most vivid example of plant communication can be found in Madagascar’s Ranomafana National Park and Uganda’s Kiabale National Park where berry plants have evolved “to match each animal’s sensory capacities, [thus] signal[ing] dinner time in the jungle…” Dr. Valenta and Nevo analyzed the exact colors of each fruit with a spectrometer, and “with a model based on the visual capacities of the seed-dispersing animals, they also determined who was most likely to detect different fruit colors contrasting against an assortment of backgrounds.” The researchers concluded that “the colors of each fruit were optimized against their natural backdrops to meet the demands of the visual systems of their primary seed dispersers,” i.e. pollinators. Thus, red-green color-blind lemurs, in Madagascar were best able to detect the fruit with a blue yellow color scheme and monkeys and apes in Uganda, with tricolor vision like humans, were clearly able to distinguish red berries against a green backdrop.

Also recently discovered was that plants can communicate to their pollinators through scent. Dr. Nevo performed a scent-based study on the lemurs in Madagascar. His team collected various ripe and unripe fruits from all over the jungle of Ranomafana. “He suspected the leumur-eaten fruits would have a greater difference in odor after they ripened than the bird-eaten fruits.” To discover exactly how this scent-based communication worked, Nevo used the “semi-static headspace technique.” From this experiment it was confirmed that “fruits dispersed solely by lemurs produced more chemicals and a greater assortment of compounds upon ripening. It is now known that wild lemurs actually spend quite a lot of time smelling for the vivid difference in odor between ripe and unripe fruits in the jungle.

It is astonishing how plants have evolved over the years to be able to communicate with their pollinators for the betterment and expansion of their species. I would be interested to find out, what other organisms communicate (single cellular, multi-cellular, etc.) and what kind of information they find necessary to convey to others for their survival?

While many of us heard about the existence of ALS through the ice-bucket challenge two summers ago, the intricacies and details of the disease are not as well known. A diagnosis of A.L.S. (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is devastating for the patient and his/her family. As the disease progresses, the patient will slowly lose their ability to use their muscles, until eventually, they can no longer control their own body movements.

A patient with this disease often would have little hope for improvement. Recently, Hanneke De Bruijne, a doctor of internal medicine from the Netherlands who received a diagnosis of ALS in 2008, received just that: a glimmer of hope. In this article from the NY Times, Steph Yin explains the exciting technology giving this particular patient a new way to communicate. With a brain-computer interface surgically implanted into her brain, she can utilize electrical signals to type out words on a computer screen in front of her. Incredible, right?

Taken by Dr. Frank Gaillard.

Nick Ramsey, one of the researchers and a professor of cognitive neuroscience, has deemed this tool a “remote control in the brain.” Using the system, De Bruijne was able to type two to three words a minute, allowing her to use it in her daily life with remarkable success.

What makes the system so ingenious is that while De Bruijne suffers from locked-in syndrome as a result of her ALS diagnosis, her brain still fires electrical signals when she feels the desire to move. The brain implant computer system capitalizes on this, allowing her to spell out her desires with a “brain click” (thinking about the hand gesture that would click that button).

While there are risks with this surgery, like any invasive procedure, the development of this new software brings hope for many ALS patients who may suffer from even more extreme locked-in syndrome, without even the ability to move their eyes. Utilizing the brain signals that still function fully allows a patient to retain control over some aspect of their life and will hopefully be able to bring light to other patients as this approach is tested further.

BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Tag: communication

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ALS Patient Gets a New Chance for Communication

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