Collective predator evasion: Putting the criticality hypothesis to the test.

ABSTRACT: According to the criticality hypothesis, collective biological systems should operate in a special parameter region, close to so-called critical points, where the collective behavior undergoes a qualitative change between different dynamical regimes. Critical systems exhibit unique properties, which may benefit collective information processing such as maximal responsiveness to external stimuli. Besides neuronal and gene-regulatory networks, recent empirical data suggests that also animal collectives may be examples of self-organized critical systems. However, open questions about self-organization mechanisms in animal groups remain: Evolutionary adaptation towards a group-level optimum (group-level selection), implicitly assumed in the "criticality hypothesis", appears in general not reas

SUBMITTER: Klamser PP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7993868 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature