Fungi anaesthesia

Abstract

Electrical activity of fungus Pleurotus ostreatus is characterised by slow (hours) irregular waves of baseline potential drift and fast (minutes) action potential likes spikes of the electrical potential. An exposure of the mycelium colonised substrate to a chloroform vapour lead to several fold decrease of the baseline potential waves and increase of their duration. The chloroform vapour also causes either complete cessation of spiking activity or substantial reduction of the spiking frequency. Removal of the chloroform vapour from the growth containers leads to a gradual restoration of the mycelium electrical activity.