Social familiarity shapes collective decision-making in response to looming stimuli in Medaka fish.

ABSTRACT: Social familiarity within groups promotes behavioural synchrony and facilitates information transfer. Whether it shapes collective decision-making under predator threat is unknown. Here groups of six medaka (Oryzias latipes) familiarised for one month were used to test whether familiarisation promotes instantaneous collective decision-making in response to a looming stimulus (LS) mimicking a predator attack. First, we analysed behavioural transitions, defined as changes among three behavioural states: high-speed, normal and freezing-like before, during, and after LS in groups of six individuals. Individuals showing high-speed state in response to LS typically tended to shift to freezing-like state afterwards, whereas non-responders were more likely to maintain normal state. Group-level ana

SUBMITTER: Nakahata R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12727767 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature