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Individual Pause-and-Go Motion Is Instrumental to the Formation and Maintenance of Swarms of Marching Locust Nymphs

The principal interactions leading to the emergence of order in swarms of marching locust nymphs was studied both experimentally, using small groups of marching locusts in the lab, and using computer simulations. We utilized a custom tracking algorithm to reveal fundamental animal-animal interaction...

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Autores principales: Ariel, Gil, Ophir, Yotam, Levi, Sagi, Ben-Jacob, Eshel, Ayali, Amir
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4079690/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24988464
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101636
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author Ariel, Gil
Ophir, Yotam
Levi, Sagi
Ben-Jacob, Eshel
Ayali, Amir
author_facet Ariel, Gil
Ophir, Yotam
Levi, Sagi
Ben-Jacob, Eshel
Ayali, Amir
author_sort Ariel, Gil
collection PubMed
description The principal interactions leading to the emergence of order in swarms of marching locust nymphs was studied both experimentally, using small groups of marching locusts in the lab, and using computer simulations. We utilized a custom tracking algorithm to reveal fundamental animal-animal interactions leading to collective motion. Uncovering this behavior introduced a new agent-based modeling approach in which pause-and-go motion is pivotal. The behavioral and modeling findings are largely based on motion-related visual sensory inputs obtained by the individual locust. Results suggest a generic principle, in which intermittent animal motion can be considered as a sequence of individual decisions as animals repeatedly reassess their situation and decide whether or not to swarm. This interpretation implies, among other things, some generic characteristics regarding the build-up and emergence of collective order in swarms: in particular, that order and disorder are generic meta-stable states of the system, suggesting that the emergence of order is kinetic and does not necessarily require external environmental changes. This work calls for further experimental as well as theoretical investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying locust coordinative behavior.
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spelling pubmed-40796902014-07-08 Individual Pause-and-Go Motion Is Instrumental to the Formation and Maintenance of Swarms of Marching Locust Nymphs Ariel, Gil Ophir, Yotam Levi, Sagi Ben-Jacob, Eshel Ayali, Amir PLoS One Research Article The principal interactions leading to the emergence of order in swarms of marching locust nymphs was studied both experimentally, using small groups of marching locusts in the lab, and using computer simulations. We utilized a custom tracking algorithm to reveal fundamental animal-animal interactions leading to collective motion. Uncovering this behavior introduced a new agent-based modeling approach in which pause-and-go motion is pivotal. The behavioral and modeling findings are largely based on motion-related visual sensory inputs obtained by the individual locust. Results suggest a generic principle, in which intermittent animal motion can be considered as a sequence of individual decisions as animals repeatedly reassess their situation and decide whether or not to swarm. This interpretation implies, among other things, some generic characteristics regarding the build-up and emergence of collective order in swarms: in particular, that order and disorder are generic meta-stable states of the system, suggesting that the emergence of order is kinetic and does not necessarily require external environmental changes. This work calls for further experimental as well as theoretical investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying locust coordinative behavior. Public Library of Science 2014-07-02 /pmc/articles/PMC4079690/ /pubmed/24988464 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101636 Text en © 2014 Ariel et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ariel, Gil
Ophir, Yotam
Levi, Sagi
Ben-Jacob, Eshel
Ayali, Amir
Individual Pause-and-Go Motion Is Instrumental to the Formation and Maintenance of Swarms of Marching Locust Nymphs
title Individual Pause-and-Go Motion Is Instrumental to the Formation and Maintenance of Swarms of Marching Locust Nymphs
title_full Individual Pause-and-Go Motion Is Instrumental to the Formation and Maintenance of Swarms of Marching Locust Nymphs
title_fullStr Individual Pause-and-Go Motion Is Instrumental to the Formation and Maintenance of Swarms of Marching Locust Nymphs
title_full_unstemmed Individual Pause-and-Go Motion Is Instrumental to the Formation and Maintenance of Swarms of Marching Locust Nymphs
title_short Individual Pause-and-Go Motion Is Instrumental to the Formation and Maintenance of Swarms of Marching Locust Nymphs
title_sort individual pause-and-go motion is instrumental to the formation and maintenance of swarms of marching locust nymphs
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4079690/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24988464
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101636
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