Directional Electrical Spiking, Bursting, and Information Propagation in Oyster Mycelium Recorded with a Star-Shaped Electrode Array

2026-01-13

AI Summary

The spatiotemporal organization of electrical signaling in fungal mycelia remains poorly understood. This study employs a star-shaped, eight-channel differential electrode array to record electrical activity of *Pleurotus ostreatus* mycelium growing in woodchip substrate. By integrating spike statistics, burst detection, and cross-channel propagation delay analysis, we reveal for the first time that mycelial electrical signals exhibit directional heterogeneity, local coupling, and reproducible propagation patterns. Signals frequently originate preferentially along specific directions and subsequently recruit distant regions in an ordered sequence with delays ranging from seconds to hours, demonstrating strong directionality, local synchrony, and stable propagation dynamics. These findings support the hypothesis that mycelial networks function as distributed excitable media.

Technology Category

• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Neural Spike Coding
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Mining of Spatial, Temporal or Spatio-Temporal Data

Application Category

• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Content-based information diffusion
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Algorithms and analysis for heterogeneous, signed, attributed, multi-relational, temporal, higher-order, and annotated Web-related graphs
• Social Networks and Social Media: Influence propagation, information diffusion, and the prediction on networks

Abstract

Electrical activity in fungal mycelium has been reported in numerous species and experimental contexts, yet its spatial organisation and propagation remain insufficiently characterised. In this study we investigate the spatiotemporal structure of electrical potential dynamics in oyster mushroom (\textit{Pleurotus ostreatus}) mycelium colonising a wood-shavings substrate. Electrical signals were recorded using an eight-channel star-shaped differential electrode array providing angular resolution around a central region of colonised substrate. We analyse spike statistics, bursting behaviour, inter-channel correlations, and event-based propagation delays. The results reveal strong directional heterogeneity in spiking frequency and amplitude, clustered bursting dynamics, partial and localised coupling between channels, and reproducible propagation patterns across spatial sectors. Electrical bursts originate preferentially in specific directions and recruit other regions with with characteristic delays ranging from seconds to minutes to hours. These findings support the interpretation of fungal mycelium as a spatially extended excitable medium capable of slow, distributed electrical signalling and signal integration.

Problem

• fungal mycelium
• electrical activity
• spatiotemporal dynamics
• signal propagation
• directional heterogeneity

Innovation

• star-shaped electrode array
• directional electrical spiking
• fungal mycelium
• bursting dynamics
• information propagation