scholarly journals A data-driven method for reconstructing and modelling social interactions in moving animal groups

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1807) ◽  
pp. 20190380 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Escobedo ◽  
V. Lecheval ◽  
V. Papaspyros ◽  
F. Bonnet ◽  
F. Mondada ◽  
...  

Group-living organisms that collectively migrate range from cells and bacteria to human crowds, and include swarms of insects, schools of fish, and flocks of birds or ungulates. Unveiling the behavioural and cognitive mechanisms by which these groups coordinate their movements is a challenging task. These mechanisms take place at the individual scale and can be described as a combination of interactions between individuals and interactions between these individuals and the physical obstacles in the environment. Thanks to the development of novel tracking techniques that provide large and accurate datasets, the main characteristics of individual and collective behavioural patterns can be quantified with an unprecedented level of precision. However, in a large number of studies, social interactions are usually described by force map methods that only have a limited capacity of explanation and prediction, being rarely suitable for a direct implementation in a concise and explicit mathematical model. Here, we present a general method to extract the interactions between individuals that are involved in the coordination of collective movements in groups of organisms. We then apply this method to characterize social interactions in two species of shoaling fish, the rummy-nose tetra ( Hemigrammus rhodostomus ) and the zebrafish ( Danio rerio ), which both present a burst-and-coast motion. From the detailed quantitative description of individual-level interactions, it is thus possible to develop a quantitative model of the emergent dynamics observed at the group level, whose predictions can be checked against experimental results. This method can be applied to a wide range of biological and social systems. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Multi-scale analysis and modelling of collective migration in biological systems’.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Escobedo ◽  
V. Lecheval ◽  
V. Papaspyros ◽  
F. Bonnet ◽  
F. Mondada ◽  
...  

AbstractGroup-living organisms that collectively migrate range from cells and bacteria to human crowds, and include swarms of insects, schools of fish and flocks of birds or ungulates. Unveiling the behavioural and cognitive mechanisms by which these groups coordinate their movements is a challenging task. These mechanisms take place at the individual scale and they can be described as a combination of pairwise interactions between individuals and interactions between these individuals and the physical obstacles in the environment. Thanks to the development of novel tracking techniques that provide large and accurate data sets, the main characteristics of individual and collective behavioural patterns can be quantified with an unprecedented level of precision. However, in a large number of works, social interactions are usually described by force map methods that only have a limited capacity of explanation and prediction, being rarely suitable for a direct implementation in a concise and explicit mathematical model. Here, we present a general method to extract the interactions between individuals that are involved in the coordination of collective movements in groups of organisms. We then apply this method to characterize social interactions in two species of shoaling fish, the rummynose tetra (Hemigrammus rhodostomus) and the zebrafish (Danio rerio), which both present a burst-and-coast motion. The detailed quantitative description of microscopic individual-level interactions thus provides predictive models of the emergent dynamics observed at the macroscopic group-level. This method can be applied to a wide range of biological and social systems.


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 945-952 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Goelzer ◽  
Vincent Fromion

Quantitative prediction of resource allocation for living systems has been an intensive area of research in the field of biology. Resource allocation was initially investigated in higher organisms by using empirical mathematical models based on mass distribution. A challenge is now to go a step further by reconciling the cellular scale to the individual scale. In the present paper, we review the foundations of modelling of resource allocation, particularly at the cellular scale: from small macro-molecular models to genome-scale cellular models. We enlighten how the combination of omic measurements and computational advances together with systems biology has contributed to dramatic progresses in the current understanding and prediction of cellular resource allocation. Accurate genome-wide predictive methods of resource allocation based on the resource balance analysis (RBA) framework have been developed and ensure a good trade-off between the complexity/tractability and the prediction capability of the model. The RBA framework shows promise for a wide range of applications in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, and for pursuing investigations of the design principles of cellular and multi-cellular organisms.


Author(s):  
David M. Wineroither ◽  
Rudolf Metz

AbstractThis report surveys four approaches that are pivotal to the study of preference formation: (a) the range, validity, and theoretical foundations of explanations of political preferences at the individual and mass levels, (b) the exploration of key objects of preference formation attached to the democratic political process (i.e., voting in competitive elections), (c) the top-down vs. bottom-up character of preference formation as addressed in leader–follower studies, and (d) gene–environment interaction and the explanatory weight of genetic predisposition against the cumulative weight of social experiences.In recent years, our understanding of sites and processes of (individual) political-preference formation has substantially improved. First, this applies to a greater variety of objects that provide fresh insight into the functioning and stability of contemporary democracy. Second, we observe the reaffirmation of pivotal theories and key concepts in adapted form against widespread challenge. This applies to the role played by social stratification, group awareness, and individual-level economic considerations. Most of these findings converge in recognising economics-based explanations. Third, research into gene–environment interplay rapidly increases the number of testable hypotheses and promises to benefit a wide range of approaches already taken and advanced in the study of political-preference formation.


Author(s):  
Michele J. Gelfand ◽  
Nava Caluori ◽  
Sarah Gordon ◽  
Jana Raver ◽  
Lisa Nishii ◽  
...  

Research on culture has generally ignored social situations, and research on social situations has generally ignored culture. In bringing together these two traditions, we show that nations vary considerably in the strength of social situations, and this is a key conceptual and empirical bridge between macro and distal cultural processes and micro and proximal psychological processes. The model thus illustrates some of the intervening mechanisms through which distal societal factors affect individual processes. It also helps to illuminate why cultural differences persist at the individual level, as they are adaptive to chronic differences in the strength of social situations. The strength of situations across cultures can provide new insights into cultural differences in a wide range of psychological processes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 816-826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilad Feldman ◽  
Huiwen Lian ◽  
Michal Kosinski ◽  
David Stillwell

There are two conflicting perspectives regarding the relationship between profanity and dishonesty. These two forms of norm-violating behavior share common causes and are often considered to be positively related. On the other hand, however, profanity is often used to express one’s genuine feelings and could therefore be negatively related to dishonesty. In three studies, we explored the relationship between profanity and honesty. We examined profanity and honesty first with profanity behavior and lying on a scale in the lab (Study 1; N = 276), then with a linguistic analysis of real-life social interactions on Facebook (Study 2; N = 73,789), and finally with profanity and integrity indexes for the aggregate level of U.S. states (Study 3; N = 50 states). We found a consistent positive relationship between profanity and honesty; profanity was associated with less lying and deception at the individual level and with higher integrity at the society level.


2005 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 596-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
rebecca g. deason ◽  
david r. andresen ◽  
chad j. marsolek

studies with humans have failed to produce evidence that any direct causal relation exists between the asymmetry of one function in an individual and the asymmetry of a different function in that individual. without such evidence, factors external to an individual's nervous system, such as social interactions, may play crucial roles in explaining the directions of all asymmetries at all levels.


Author(s):  
Stefanie Hoehl ◽  
Merle Fairhurst ◽  
Annett Schirmer

Abstract Many group-living animals, humans included, occasionally synchronize their behavior with that of conspecifics. Social psychology and neuroscience have attempted to explain this phenomenon. Here we sought to integrate results around three themes: the stimuli, the mechanisms and the benefits of interactional synchrony. As regards stimuli, we asked what characteristics, apart from temporal regularity, prompt synchronization and found that stimulus modality and complexity are important. The high temporal resolution of the auditory system and the relevance of socio-emotional information endow auditory, multimodal, emotional and somewhat variable and adaptive sequences with particular synchronizing power. Looking at the mechanisms revealed that traditional perspectives emphasizing beat-based representations of others’ signals conflict with more recent work investigating the perception of temporal regularity. Timing processes supported by striato-cortical loops represent any kind of repetitive interval sequence fairly automatically. Additionally, socio-emotional processes supported by posterior superior temporal cortex help endow such sequences with value motivating the extent of synchronizing. Synchronizing benefits arise from an increased predictability of incoming signals and include many positive outcomes ranging from basic information processing at the individual level to the bonding of dyads and larger groups.


2003 ◽  
Vol 06 (03) ◽  
pp. 331-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUTAKA I. LEON SUEMATSU ◽  
KEIKI TAKADAMA ◽  
NORBERTO E. NAWA ◽  
KATSUNORI SHIMOHARA ◽  
OSAMU KATAI

Agent-based models (ABMs) have been attracting the attention of researchers in the social sciences, becoming a prominent paradigm in the study of complex social systems. Although a great number of models have been proposed for studying a variety of social phenomena, no general agent design methodology is available. Moreover, it is difficult to validate the accuracy of these models. For this reason, we believe that some guidelines for ABMs design must be devised; therefore, this paper is a first attempt to analyze the levels of ABMs, identify and classify several aspects that should be considered when designing ABMs. Through our analysis, the following implications have been found: (1) there are two levels in designing ABMs: the individual level, related to the design of the agents' internal structure, and the collective level, which concerns the design of the agent society or macro-dynamics of the model; and (2) the mechanisms of these levels strongly affect the outcomes of the models.


Author(s):  
E. J. Denton ◽  
J. A. C. Nicol

The orientations of the reflecting layers in the external surfaces of the herring have been found both by light-measurements on the fresh fish and by histological studies on preserved specimens.The reflecting platelets which lie under the scales are orientated, with respect to the surface of the fish, in a similar way to the platelets found in the bleak and described earlier by Demon & Nicol (1965). However, on the curved dorsum of the fish, although the reflecting platelets are much more perpendicular to the sea surface than the scales on which they lie, these platelets are still inclined some 20° to the perpendicular. It is shown that, in this region, the fish reflects the fraction of the light striking the platelets which is sufficient to match the background against which the fish is seen. The platelets on the curved dorsum have the property of reflecting green light well if it falls obliquely on them but reflecting it poorly when it strikes them at angles close to normal incidence. On the broad flank of the herring the scales have reflecting platelets under most of their surfaces, and the individual scale has several distinctly coloured regions. When we look at any particular region of the flank of an intact fish we are always looking at several overlapping layers differing greatly from one another in their spectral reflecting properties.It is the combination of the reflexions of several layers which gives the very bright silvery reflexions of the intact fish. A system of overlapping scales of this kind is needed even to reflect one waveband of light well over a wide range of angles of incidence.


Author(s):  
Martin Dribe ◽  
Luciana Quaranta

The Scanian Economic-Demographic Database (SEDD) is a high-quality longitudinal data resource spanning the period 1646-1967. It covers all individuals born in or migrated to the city of Landskrona and five rural parishes in western Scania in southern Sweden. The entire population present in the area is fully covered after 1813. At the individual level, SEDD combines various demographic and socioeconomic records, including causes of death, place of birth and geographic data on the place of residence within a parish. At the family level, the data contain a combination of demographic records and information on occupation, landholding and income. The data for 1813-1967 was structured in the model of the Intermediate Data Structure (IDS). In addition to storing source data in the SEDD IDS tables, a wide range of individual- and context-level variables were constructed, which means that most types of analyses using SEDD can be conducted without the need of further elaboration of the data. This article discusses the source material, linkage methods, and structure of the database.


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