If someone steps on your foot, the nerves in your foot conduct an electrical signal to your brain for interpretation as pressure, pain, etc. Plants use external chemical signals for similar signaling. Presumably this is similar.
The Xenofungus from the video game Alpha Centauri comes to mind.
Who knows what the specific function is, maybe specific species are sensitive to the specific pressure of another species required for reproduction. In the plant example, they often use chemical signaling to repel predators (and note that plants are also "not conscious", and most are way less mobile than fungi).