The fungus Phanerochaete velutina can "recognize" different spatial arrangements of wood resources, demonstrating a form of primitive intelligence. In lab tests, the fungus formed different network patterns and showed varying decay activities based on whether wood blocks were arranged in a circle or cross pattern. The fungal networks decomposed wood up to 65.5% faster when blocks were arranged in circles versus crosses, suggesting fungi may possess a basic form of spatial recognition similar to how neural networks process visual patterns. "They have memories, they learn, and they can make decisions. Quite frankly, the differences in how they solve problems compared to humans is mind-blowing,” Yu Fukasawa, one of the researchers, noted.