Do Fruit Flies Have Emotions?

[Darkstar]

This thread kind of reminded em of this study:

Mimosa pudica is known as the Sensitive plant or a touch-me-not. Dr Monica Gagliano from the University of Western Australia and her colleagues designed their experiments as if Mimosa was indeed an animal.


They trained Mimosa‘s short- and long-term memories under both high and low-light environments by repeatedly dropping water on them using a custom-designed apparatus.

The scientists show how Mimosa plants stopped closing their leaves when they learnt that the repeated disturbance had no real damaging consequence.

The plants were able to acquire the learnt behavior in a matter of seconds and as in animals, learning was faster in less favorable environment.

Most remarkably, these plants were able to remember what had been learned for several weeks, even after environmental conditions had changed.

http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-...01695.html

Now surely we don't say that plants have consciousness just because of this.

On a side note, I think the term 'emotion' is being used too loosely here. Simply because something is a behavior, even a learned one, does not mean that it is indicative of emotion.