Competition between ferro-retrieval and anti-ferro orders in a Hopfield-like network model for plant intelligence

Abstract

We introduce a simple cellular-network model to explain the capacity of the plants as memory devices. Following earlier observations (Bose (The Nervous Mechanism of Plants, Longmans, London, 1923) and others), we regard the plant as a network in which each of the elements (plant cells) are connected via negative (inhibitory) interactions. To investigate the performance of the network, we construct a model following that of Hopfield, whose energy function possesses both Hebbian spin glass and anti-ferromagnetic terms. With the assistance of the replica method, we find that the memory state of the network decreases enormously due to the effect of the anti-ferromagnetic order induced by the inhibitory connections. We conclude that the ability of the plant as a memory device is rather weak.