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The emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies

The sensory response threshold is a fundamental biophysical property of biological systems that underlies many physiological and computational functions, and its systematic study has played a pivotal role in uncovering the principles of biological computation. Here, we show that ant colonies, which...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gal, Asaf, Kronauer, Daniel J. C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9191679/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35653573
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2123076119
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author Gal, Asaf
Kronauer, Daniel J. C.
author_facet Gal, Asaf
Kronauer, Daniel J. C.
author_sort Gal, Asaf
collection PubMed
description The sensory response threshold is a fundamental biophysical property of biological systems that underlies many physiological and computational functions, and its systematic study has played a pivotal role in uncovering the principles of biological computation. Here, we show that ant colonies, which perform computational tasks at the group level, have emergent collective sensory response thresholds. Colonies respond collectively to step changes in temperature and evacuate the nest during severe perturbations. This response is characterized by a group-size–dependent threshold, and the underlying dynamics are dominated by social feedback between the ants. Using a binary network model, we demonstrate that a balance between short-range excitatory and long-range inhibitory interactions can explain the emergence of the collective response threshold and its size dependency. Our findings illustrate how simple social dynamics allow insect colonies to integrate information about the external environment and their internal state to produce adaptive collective responses.
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spelling pubmed-91916792022-06-14 The emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies Gal, Asaf Kronauer, Daniel J. C. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences The sensory response threshold is a fundamental biophysical property of biological systems that underlies many physiological and computational functions, and its systematic study has played a pivotal role in uncovering the principles of biological computation. Here, we show that ant colonies, which perform computational tasks at the group level, have emergent collective sensory response thresholds. Colonies respond collectively to step changes in temperature and evacuate the nest during severe perturbations. This response is characterized by a group-size–dependent threshold, and the underlying dynamics are dominated by social feedback between the ants. Using a binary network model, we demonstrate that a balance between short-range excitatory and long-range inhibitory interactions can explain the emergence of the collective response threshold and its size dependency. Our findings illustrate how simple social dynamics allow insect colonies to integrate information about the external environment and their internal state to produce adaptive collective responses. National Academy of Sciences 2022-06-02 2022-06-07 /pmc/articles/PMC9191679/ /pubmed/35653573 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2123076119 Text en Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Biological Sciences
Gal, Asaf
Kronauer, Daniel J. C.
The emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies
title The emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies
title_full The emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies
title_fullStr The emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies
title_full_unstemmed The emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies
title_short The emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies
title_sort emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies
topic Biological Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9191679/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35653573
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2123076119
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