The human inability to notice plants and recognise their importance on Earth has been termed “plant blindness”. Among the main reasons (e.g., cultural and biological factors) underlying this phenomenon, the lack of visible movement of plants seems to be the main factor that makes plants less prominent to the human eye. Here, we tested the idea that observing plants moving on our time scale might change the way we attend to them. We combined single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and motor-evoked potential (MEP) recordings to assess the activation of observers' motor system during the observation of an action performed by either a pea plant or a human when approaching and grasping a pole. Control conditions involving a stationary hand or pea plant, a hand or pea plant rotating along their axes, and a hand grasping the pole in the style of a plant were also considered. The participants’ sensitivity to the role and importance of plants for human life and other living organisms was assessed by means of an ad-hoc questionnaire. The results showed a specific effect of motor facilitation relative to baseline values when observing plants rotating and grasping, but not for plants standing still. Higher levels of motor activation may indicate a greater degree of effort in interpreting the observed action, when it is perceived as unfamiliar by the observer. An effort that can be reduced through awareness and knowledge of the role and importance of the green kingdom for life on Earth. Notably, people more sensitive to plants showed similar levels of motor activation when observing both plant and human actions.

中文翻译：

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手中的植物意识

人类无法注意到植物并认识到它们对地球的重要性被称为“植物盲”。在造成这种现象的主要原因（例如文化和生物因素）中，植物缺乏可见的运动似乎是导致植物在人眼中不那么突出的主要因素。在这里，我们测试了这样一个想法：观察植物在我们的时间尺度上移动可能会改变我们关注它们的方式。我们结合单脉冲经颅磁刺激（TMS）和运动诱发电位（MEP）记录来评估观察者在观察豌豆或人类接近并抓住一根杆子时的运动系统的激活情况。还考虑了涉及静止的手或豌豆植物、沿其轴旋转的手或豌豆植物以及以植物的形式抓握杆的控制条件。通过特别调查问卷评估了参与者对植物对人类生命和其他生物体的作用和重要性的敏感性。结果表明，当观察植物旋转和抓握时，运动促进相对于基线值有特定影响，但对于静止的植物则不然。当观察者认为观察到的动作不熟悉时，较高水平的运动激活可能表明在解释观察到的动作时付出了更大程度的努力。通过认识和了解绿色王国对地球生命的作用和重要性，可以减少这种努力。值得注意的是，对植物更敏感的人在观察植物和人类行为时表现出相似的运动激活水平。