scholarly journals Biological motion as an innate perceptual mechanism driving social affiliation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Larsch ◽  
Herwig Baier
Keyword(s):  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Group Formation ◽  
Juvenile Fish ◽  
Social Recognition ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Social Affiliation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Perceptual Mechanism

AbstractCollective behavior, such as shoaling in teleost fish, is driven by the perceptual recognition of conspecific animals. Because social interactions are mutual, it has been difficult to disentangle the exact sensory cues that trigger affiliation in the first place from those that are emitted by receptive and responsive shoal mates. Here we overcome this challenge in a virtual reality assay in zebrafish. We discovered that simple visual features of conspecific biological motion provide an irresistible shoaling cue. Individual juvenile fish interact with circular black dots projected onto a screen, to the same extent as they do with real conspecifics, provided these virtual objects mimic the characteristic kinetics of zebrafish swim bouts. Other naturalistic cues previously implicated in shoaling, such as fish-like shape, pigmentation pattern, or non-visual sensory modalities are not required. During growth, the animals’ stimulus preferences shift gradually, matching self-like kinetics, even in fish raised in isolation. Virtual group interactions and our multi-agent model implementation of this perceptual mechanism demonstrate sufficiency of kinetic cues to drive assortative shoaling, a phenomenon commonly observed in field studies. Coordinated behavior can emerge from autonomous interactions, such as collective odor avoidance in Drosophila, or from reciprocal interactions, such as the codified turn-taking in wren duet singing. We found that individual zebrafish shoal autonomously without evidence for a reciprocal choreography. Our results reveal individual-level, innate perceptual rules of engagement in mutual affiliation and provide experimental access to the neural mechanisms of social recognition. (239/250 words max)Significance StatementSocial affiliation is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom, but fundamental sensory cues driving group formation remain elusive. During swarm behavior, for example, individuals dynamically exchange sensory cues with their neighbors, presenting an intertwined choreography opaque to formal analysis of causal stimulus-response relationships. Using a virtual interaction assay for psychophysical analysis, we solved this issue and identify biological motion as the irresistible trigger of social affiliation in zebrafish, Danio rerio. Given that many species form groups including shoals, flocks and herds, perceptual mechanisms of social recognition and their underlying neural circuits are likely shared across vertebrates. The identification of fundamental affiliation-inducing cues is a prerequisite for relating individual-level sensory-motor transformations to collective behavior. (112/120 words max)

scholarly journals Biological Motion as an Innate Perceptual Mechanism Driving Social Affiliation

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (22) ◽  
pp. 3523-3532.e4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Larsch ◽  
Herwig Baier
Keyword(s):  
Biological Motion ◽  
Social Affiliation ◽  
Perceptual Mechanism

scholarly journals How Does the Fusion of Sensory Information From Audition and Vision Impact Collective Behavior?

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subhradeep Roy ◽  
Jeremy Lemus
Keyword(s):  
Simulation Study ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Composite Model ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Auditory Cues ◽  
Vicsek Model ◽  
Visual Sensing ◽  
Sense Modality

The present study investigates how combined information from audition and vision impacts group-level behavior. We consider a modification to the original Vicsek model that allows individuals to use auditory and visual sensing modalities to gather information from neighbors in order to update their heading directions. Moreover, in this model, the information from visual and auditory cues can be weighed differently. In a simulation study, we examine the sensitivity of the emergent group-level behavior to the weights that are assigned to each sense modality in this weighted composite model. Our findings suggest combining sensory cues may play an important role in the collective behavior and results from the composite model indicate that the group-level features from pure audition predominate.

scholarly journals Conformity in the collective: differences in hunger affect individual and group behavior in a shoaling fish

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 968-974 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander D M Wilson ◽  
Alicia L J Burns ◽  
Emanuele Crosato ◽  
Joseph Lizier ◽  
Mikhail Prokopenko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Collective Motion ◽  
Internal State ◽  
Group Behavior ◽  
Fundamental Interest ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Nearest Neighbor Distances

Abstract Animal groups are often composed of individuals that vary according to behavioral, morphological, and internal state parameters. Understanding the importance of such individual-level heterogeneity to the establishment and maintenance of coherent group responses is of fundamental interest in collective behavior. We examined the influence of hunger on the individual and collective behavior of groups of shoaling fish, x-ray tetras (Pristella maxillaris). Fish were assigned to one of two nutritional states, satiated or hungry, and then allocated to 5 treatments that represented different ratios of satiated to hungry individuals (8 hungry, 8 satiated, 4:4 hungry:satiated, 2:6 hungry:satiated, 6:2 hungry:satiated). Our data show that groups with a greater proportion of hungry fish swam faster and exhibited greater nearest neighbor distances. Within groups, however, there was no difference in the swimming speeds of hungry versus well-fed fish, suggesting that group members conform and adapt their swimming speed according to the overall composition of the group. We also found significant differences in mean group transfer entropy, suggesting stronger patterns of information flow in groups comprising all, or a majority of, hungry individuals. In contrast, we did not observe differences in polarization, a measure of group alignment, within groups across treatments. Taken together these results demonstrate that the nutritional state of animals within social groups impacts both individual and group behavior, and that members of heterogenous groups can adapt their behavior to facilitate coherent collective motion.

Conclusions

Ordinary Jews ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evgeny Finkel
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Survival Strategies ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Individual

This book has shown that there can be a political science of the Holocaust by analyzing one of the most overlooked aspects of the Holocaust: variation in Jewish victims' individual and collective behavior. At the individual level, the book has outlined a new typology of victims' survival strategies: cooperation and collaboration, coping and compliance, evasion, and resistance. This typology has been applied to Jewish behavior in Minsk, Kraków, and Białystok. The comparison of these three Jewish ghettos illustrates several patterns; for example, knowledge and information about Nazi policies played a role in the Jews' choice of behaviors. This concluding chapter considers some of the theoretical and policy-relevant implications of this book's findings. It also argues that the insights of social sciences can be integrated into Holocaust research and that the Holocaust can be used to develop new arguments and refine existing frameworks.

scholarly journals A test of the coupling of predator defense morphology and behavior variation in two threespine stickleback populations

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennyfer Lacasse ◽  
Nadia Aubin-Horth
Keyword(s):  
Juvenile Fish ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Common Environment ◽  
Lateral Plate ◽  
Predator Defense ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Ecological Conditions ◽  
Threespine Sticklebacks ◽  
Juvenile Behavior ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Among-population differences in morphology and behaviors such as boldness have been shown to co-vary with ecological conditions, including predation regime. However, between- and within-population covariation of predator defense morphology with variation in behaviors relevant to ecology and evolution (boldness, exploration, activity, sociability and aggressiveness, often defined as personality traits when they are consistent across time and contexts) have never been quantified together in a single study in juvenile fish from populations found in contrasting environments. We measured predator defense morphology differences between adults from two freshwater populations of threespine sticklebacks with different ecological conditions. We then quantified five behaviors in juveniles from both populations raised in a common environment. Wild-caught adults showed significant differences in predator defense morphology. One population had significantly lower lateral plate number, shorter dorsal spine, pelvic spine and pelvic girdle. Furthermore, 61% of individuals from that population showed an absence of pelvic spine and girdle. At the population level, we found that differences in defense morphology in adults between the two lakes were coupled with differences in behaviors in juveniles raised in a common environment. Levels of activity, aggressiveness and boldness were higher in juveniles from the population lacking predator defense structures. At the individual level, anti-predator morphology of adult females could not predict their offspring’s behavior, but juvenile coloration predicted individual boldness in a population-specific manner. Our results suggest that ecological conditions, as reflected in adult predator defense morphology, also affect juvenile behavior in threespine sticklebacks, resulting in trait co-specialization, and that there is a genetic or epigenetic component to these behavioral differences.

scholarly journals Treatment-level impacts of microplastic exposure may be confounded by variation in individual-level responses in juvenile fish

2021 ◽  
pp. 126059
Author(s):  
Gerrit B. Nanninga ◽  
Assaf Pertzelan ◽  
Moshe Kiflawi ◽  
Roi Holzman ◽  
Isolde Plakolm ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Juvenile Fish ◽  
Treatment Level ◽  
Individual Level

scholarly journals Multiple Goal Orientations as Predictors of Moral Behavior in Youth Soccer

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Sage ◽  
Maria Kavussanu
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Antisocial Behavior ◽  
Goal Orientations ◽  
Social Recognition ◽  
Soccer Players ◽  
Task Orientation ◽  
Social Goal ◽  
Social Affiliation ◽  
Youth Soccer ◽  
Ego Orientation

The purpose of this study was to examine task-, ego-, and social-goal orientations as predictors of prosocial and antisocial behavior in youth soccer. Participants were 365 male (n = 227) and female (n = 138) youth soccer players Mage = 13.4 years, SD = 1.8), who completed questionnaires measuring task and ego orientation; the goals of social affiliation, social recognition and social status; prosocial and antisocial behavior; and demographics. Regression analyses revealed that prosocial behavior was predicted positively by task orientation and social affiliation and negatively by social status. In contrast, antisocial behavior was predicted positively by ego orientation and social status and negatively by task orientation. Findings for task and ego orientation are consistent with previous work. Social-goal orientations explained further variance in prosocial and antisocial behavior, and their inclusion in future moral research is encouraged.

scholarly journals Climate change as a catalyst of social evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanette Moss ◽  
Geoffrey While
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Group Formation ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Animal Societies

Anthropogenic climatic change will be a major factor shaping natural populations over the foreseeable future. The scope of this issue has spawned the integrative field of global change biology, which is chiefly concerned with identifying vulnerabilities of natural systems to climate change and integrating these into models of biodiversity loss. Meanwhile, there remains considerable latitude for investigating the multiple indirect and nuanced ways that broad-scale shifts in the abiotic environment will impact biological systems. One major unexplored category of effects is on social organisation. While climate has consistently been implicated as a major source of natural selection responsible for facilitating the evolution of complex animal societies, studies directed at testing these links on contemporary climatic time scales have thus far been limited to a select few higher-order, eusocial, taxa. Here, we present the case for how climate change, and specifically rising global temperatures, could catalyze social change at multiple stages of social evolution. We argue that these effects will manifest themselves through a range of subtle, climate-mediated pathways affecting the opportunities, nature, and context of interactions between individuals. We propose a broad conceptual framework for considering these pathways first at the individual level, and then discuss how feedbacks between bottom-up and top-down processes could mediate population-level shifts. We then implement this framework to explore the capacity for climate-mediated shifts in social evolution within three broad categories of social complexity: social group formation, social group maintenance, and social elaboration. For each category, we leverage social evolutionary theory and phylogenetic work spanning diverse systems to describe the pivotal traits that underpin transitions from each level of social complexity. In doing so, we aim to build a case for how short-term individual responses to climate could scale to impart constructive and/or destructive effects on the origins, maintenance, and diversification of animal societies.

scholarly journals Conforming to Collective Action: The Impact of Rejection, Personality and Norms on Participation in Protest Activity

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma A. Renström ◽  
Hanna Bäck ◽  
Holly M. Knapton
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Need To Belong ◽  
Social Affiliation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Motivating Factor ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Protest Activity

Social norms guide humans’ everyday behavior, and previous research has shown that social norms consistently predict some forms of political participation. Failure to conform to norms may lead to deviation and possible rejection, which humans innately seek to avoid since it threatens their need for belongingness. Following an episode of rejection, individuals are therefore likely to become increasingly willing to conform to norms in order to re-establish a position in their social group. In an experiment, we show that 1) individuals conform to a perceived political engagement norm, and that 2) when rejection associations are made salient, they become increasingly willing to conform to a political engagement norm. We also show 3) that this effect is moderated by individual-level need for belongingness, such that rejection primed participants with a high need to belong, showed the highest levels of conformity to the perceived political engagement norm. The results imply that social pressure is a strong motivating factor in political engagement, which is an important result suggesting that basic social affiliation needs may in fact have an impact on politics and political outcomes.

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