Self-organization, Criticality and Collective Information Processing in Animal Groups
Pawel Romanczuk (HU Berlin)

Collective behavior of animals is a fascinating example of self-organization in biology. This phenomenon is believed to provide several advantages to individuals, such as facilitating exchange of social information, promoting accurate collective decisions, or affording protection from predators. It has been theorized that animal
collectives should operate in a special parameter region close to a critical point [1], where various aspects of collective computations become optimal [2]. Here, we discuss the "criticality hypothesis" in the context of collective animal behavior by combining experimental data and individual-based modeling. First, we will analyze self-organized coordination of movement in Trichoplax adhaerens, one of the simplest multicellular animals devoid of a central nervous system [3].

Subsequently, we shift our focus to the collective response of fish to predators. Using a spatially-explicit schooling model, we will investigate the optimal collective response at the transition between order and disorder, and individual-level evolutionary adaptation as a mechanisms for self-organization towards criticality [4]. Finally, by combining experimental data from laboratory setting and field experiments with computational models, we will explore the criticality hypothesis in relation to so-called "startle cascades", which represent rapid escape responses propagating through fish schools, akin to the activity avalanches observed in neuronal systems [5,6].

  1. Thierry Mora and William Bialek: Are Biological Systems Poised at Criticality? J Stat Phys 144, 268–302 (2011).
    Zum Herunterladen: MOR11.pdf
  2. Pawel Romanczuk and Bryan C. Daniels: Chapter 4: Phase Transitions and Criticality in the Collective Behavior of Animals — Self-Organization and Biological Function, Order, Disorder and Criticality, pp. 179-208 (2023).
    Zum Herunterladen: ROM22.pdf

  3. Mircea R. Davidescu, Pawel Romanczuk, Thomas Gregor, and Iain D. Couzin: Growth produces coordination trade-offs in Trichoplax adhaerens, an animal lacking a central nervous system, Proc. Nat. Soc. USA 120, e2206163120 (2023).
    Zum Herunterladen: DAV23.pdf

  4. Pascal P. Klamser and Pawel Romanczuk: Collective predator evasion: Putting the criticality hypothesis to the test. PLoS Comput. Biol. 17, e1008832 (2021).
    Zum Herunterladen: KLA21.pdf

  5. Winnie Poel, Bryan C. Daniels, Matthew M. G. Sosna, Colin R. Twomey, Simon P. Leblanc, Iain D. Couzin, and Pawel Romanczuk: Subcritical escape waves in schooling fish, Sci. Adv. 8, eabm6385 (2022).
    Zum Herunterladen: POE22.pdf

  6. Luis Gómez-Nava, Robert T. Lange, Pascal P. Klamser, Juliane Lukas, Lenin Arias-Rodriguez, David Bierbach, Jens Krause, Henning Sprekeler, and Pawel Romanczuk: Fish shoals resemble a stochastic excitable system driven by environmental perturbations, Nature Physics 19, 663 (2023).
    Zum Herunterladen: GOM23.pdf

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Modifié le: mercredi 17 juillet 2024, 08:18