Collective intermittent exploration in fish schools is mediated by visual cues
Exploratory behaviour is fundamental to animal collectives, directly influencing fitness through resource acquisition and predator avoidance. Despite its ecological significance, the processes governing when and how animals initiate exploration in social contexts under varying sensory inputs remain...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The Royal Society
2025-06-01
|
| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.250033 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849473367897276416 |
|---|---|
| author | Deze Liu Daniel Burbano |
| author_facet | Deze Liu Daniel Burbano |
| author_sort | Deze Liu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Exploratory behaviour is fundamental to animal collectives, directly influencing fitness through resource acquisition and predator avoidance. Despite its ecological significance, the processes governing when and how animals initiate exploration in social contexts under varying sensory inputs remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate how the number of individuals and illumination (modulating visual input) influence zebrafish exploratory behaviour. Visual cues were quantified via opacity (field occupancy) and optic flow (relative motion). With visual input, zebrafish exhibited higher swimming activity and shorter exploratory bursts, while its absence led to more dispersed and prolonged exploration. Interestingly, fish triads without visual input exhibited longer exploration times compared to dyads. A data-driven stochastic model revealed a bistable potential landscape balancing social cohesion and exploration, modulated by a parabolic noise term driving decision-making. Visual cues biased the potential towards conspecific proximity, while their absence diminished this effect, promoting prolonged exploration. The noise term follows an entropy-like pattern analogous to a coin flip, reaching maximal uncertainty at intermediate distances and forcing individuals to break indecision between proximity and exploration. These findings point to a complex interplay between sensory input and group dynamics, underscoring the profound impact of environmental changes and the number of conspecifics on collective behaviour. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4ef2c39f07414bce8f2dd23545f2f8e2 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-4ef2c39f07414bce8f2dd23545f2f8e22025-08-20T03:24:08ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032025-06-0112610.1098/rsos.250033Collective intermittent exploration in fish schools is mediated by visual cuesDeze Liu0Daniel Burbano1Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USAElectrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USAExploratory behaviour is fundamental to animal collectives, directly influencing fitness through resource acquisition and predator avoidance. Despite its ecological significance, the processes governing when and how animals initiate exploration in social contexts under varying sensory inputs remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate how the number of individuals and illumination (modulating visual input) influence zebrafish exploratory behaviour. Visual cues were quantified via opacity (field occupancy) and optic flow (relative motion). With visual input, zebrafish exhibited higher swimming activity and shorter exploratory bursts, while its absence led to more dispersed and prolonged exploration. Interestingly, fish triads without visual input exhibited longer exploration times compared to dyads. A data-driven stochastic model revealed a bistable potential landscape balancing social cohesion and exploration, modulated by a parabolic noise term driving decision-making. Visual cues biased the potential towards conspecific proximity, while their absence diminished this effect, promoting prolonged exploration. The noise term follows an entropy-like pattern analogous to a coin flip, reaching maximal uncertainty at intermediate distances and forcing individuals to break indecision between proximity and exploration. These findings point to a complex interplay between sensory input and group dynamics, underscoring the profound impact of environmental changes and the number of conspecifics on collective behaviour.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.250033animal movementscollective behaviourstochastic differential equations |
| spellingShingle | Deze Liu Daniel Burbano Collective intermittent exploration in fish schools is mediated by visual cues Royal Society Open Science animal movements collective behaviour stochastic differential equations |
| title | Collective intermittent exploration in fish schools is mediated by visual cues |
| title_full | Collective intermittent exploration in fish schools is mediated by visual cues |
| title_fullStr | Collective intermittent exploration in fish schools is mediated by visual cues |
| title_full_unstemmed | Collective intermittent exploration in fish schools is mediated by visual cues |
| title_short | Collective intermittent exploration in fish schools is mediated by visual cues |
| title_sort | collective intermittent exploration in fish schools is mediated by visual cues |
| topic | animal movements collective behaviour stochastic differential equations |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.250033 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dezeliu collectiveintermittentexplorationinfishschoolsismediatedbyvisualcues AT danielburbano collectiveintermittentexplorationinfishschoolsismediatedbyvisualcues |