Collective behaviour in vertebrates: a sensory perspective

Collective behaviors that seem highly ordered and result in collective alignment, such as schooling by fish and flocking by birds, arise from seamless shuffling (such as super-diffusion) and bustling inside groups (such as Lévy walks). However, such noisy behavior inside groups appears to preclude the collective behavior: intuitively, we expect that noisy behavior would lead to the group being destabilized and broken into small sub groups, and high alignment seems to preclude shuffling of neighbors. Although statistical modeling approaches with extrinsic noise, such as the maximum entropy approach, have provided some reasonable descriptions, they ignore the cognitive perspective of the individuals. In this paper, we try to explain how the group tendency, that is, high alignment, and highly noisy individual behavior can coexist in a single framework. The key aspect of our approach is multi-time-scale interaction emerging from the existence of an interaction radius that reflects short-term and long-term predictions. This multi-time-scale interaction is a natural extension of the attraction and alignment concept in many flocking models. When we apply this method in a two-dimensional model, various flocking behaviors, such as swarming, milling, and schooling, emerge. The approach also explains the appearance of super-diffusion, the Lévy walk in groups, and local equilibria. At the end of this paper, we discuss future developments, including extending our model to three dimensions.

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“… The test followed Clauset’s methods [ 39 ]. If p > 0.1, then the power law assumption cannot be rejected.…”

Section: Supporting Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entangled time in flocking: Multi-time-scale interaction reveals emergence of inherent noise

Niizato

Murakami

2018

PLoS ONE

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“…In other words, the effects of some visual social parameters may depend on the intensity of other visual social parameters tuning up or down different social behavioral responses. We believe this is relevant because research on collective behavior sometimes tries to pin down simple rules governing between individual interactions (Schellinck and White 2011;Arganda et al 2012;Pita et al 2016). Although simplification is certainly necessary to understand complex behaviors, we suggest that considering the multiplicative effects of different visual components can enhance our ability to predict social interactions in groups.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ultimately, the size of the interaction range defines the number of group mates that an individual can gather social information from (Fernandez-Juricic et al 2007). An important factor that can limit the distance over which social information is transferred is the perceptual ability of the receiver (Strandburg-Peshkin et al 2013;Pita et al 2016). In the case of visual information, the limits of spatial resolving power or visual acuity (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the case of visual information, the limits of spatial resolving power or visual acuity (i.e. ability to resolve two objects as separate entities) can constrain the size of the interaction range (Pita et al, 2016). Changes in the size of the interaction range are expected to change an individual's behavior to maintain its ability to resolve social information (Kimbell and Morrell 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The visual social environment affects non-additively neighbor spacing and interaction time in zebrafish

Pita¹,

Fernández‐Juricic²

2019

Preprint

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Many fish form schools and visually track the position of their neighbors in a 3D environment.In this study, we assessed whether zebrafish modified their spacing behavior and interaction time in an additive or multiplicative way relative to multiple sources of visual social information using video playbacks. We simultaneously manipulated: (a) the magnitude of the social cues (by varying the size of the virtual fish), (b) the level of social risk (low, high based on the position of the virtual fish in the water column), and (c) the perceived depth of the social cues (visual horizon absent or present). Each of these factors independently affected spacing behavior (zebrafish increased the separation distance with larger virtual fish, under lower visual social risk, and when depth perception was enhanced), but they did not affect interaction time.However, some of these factors interacted significantly, such that their effects on social behavior depended on each other. For instance, zebrafish decreased their separation distance under high vs. low risk conditions when the virtual fish was the same or smaller size, but this risk effect disappeared with larger virtual fish likely to avoid aggression. Also, zebrafish increased their separation distance when perceived depth was enhanced under low risk, but the perceived depth effect became less pronounced under high risk probably due to dilution effects. Overall, the effects of certain visual social parameters depend on the intensity of other visual social parameters, ultimately tuning up or down different social behavioral responses. We discuss the implications for the spatial organization of fish schools.

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“…Such coordination gives the flock a superorganism-like behavior (e.g., Davis, 1980), with a variety of patterns of maneuvering and compacting during attacks (see Storms et al, 2019;Sumpter, 2010). Modeling suggests that flocks of such birds achieve this coordination by interacting mainly with neighboring birds (Hildenbrandt, Carere, & Hemelrijk, 2010;Hemelrijk & Hildenbrandt, 2011; see also Bode, Faria, Franks, Krause, & Wood, 2010;Pita, Collignon, Halloy, & Fernández-Juricic, 2016). Pelagic fishes are also well known for coordinated escape behavior, exhibiting varied and dazzling patterns of maneuvering, splitting and reforming during attacks (Partridge, 1982;Sumpter, 2010).…”

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confidence: 99%

Is social coordination during escape flights a general phenomenon in birds?

Lima

Lee

2019

Ethology

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Escape from predatory attack as a socially coordinated group is observed in many social animals, including birds, especially those in more open habitats where the group itself may be the only source of protection from an attacking predator. For many social birds, however, woody vegetative cover is the main refuge from attack, but such birds might nevertheless benefit from social coordination during escape flights to cover. Such benefits could reflect the confusion effect, selfish herd effect, or the simple dilution of risk. We examined this possibility of coordinated escape in mixed flocks of wintering passerellid sparrows (Passerellidae). These free‐living birds fed in a patch of food flanked on opposite sides by two refuges composed of woody cover. Under such conditions, coordination in escape behavior should be expressed as a tendency to escape together as a group to the same cover location. Such behavior, however, was not the rule. During spontaneous flushes to cover, a group of escaping birds stayed together only when one cover location was clearly closer than the other. With cover equidistant from the food patch, escaping flocks tended to split about evenly between cover locations. Birds in close proximity prior to an escape flight did not show enhanced escape coordination, nor did those feeding at significant distances from protective cover. Evidence of escape coordination was observed in small groups (two–four birds), but even in such groups, flock splitting during escape was generally the rule. Flock splitting during attacks might reflect some sort of strategic decision‐making process that lessens the risk of capture, but the most parsimonious explanation is that (all else equal) birds head for the nearest refuge, largely irrespective of the behavior of their flockmates. Our results thus provide little evidence of flock‐wide social coordination during escape flights in cover‐dependent birds.

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Collective behaviour in vertebrates: a sensory perspective

Cited by 29 publications

References 91 publications

Entangled time in flocking: Multi-time-scale interaction reveals emergence of inherent noise

Entangled time in flocking: Multi-time-scale interaction reveals emergence of inherent noise

The visual social environment affects non-additively neighbor spacing and interaction time in zebrafish

Is social coordination during escape flights a general phenomenon in birds?

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