Abstract:
Intermittent motion is prevalent in animal locomotion. Of special interest is the case of collective motion, in which social and environmental information must be processed in order to establish coordinated movement. We explored this nexus in locust, focusing on how intermittent motion interacts with swarming-related visual-based decision-making. Using a novel approach, we compared individual locust behaviour in response to continuously moving stimuli, with their response in semi-closed-loop conditions, in which the stimuli moved either in phase with the locust walking, or out of phase, i.e. only during the locust\'s pauses. Our findings clearly indicate the greater tendency of a locust to respond and \'join the swarming motion\' when the visual stimuli were presented during its pauses. Hence, the current study strongly confirms previous indications of the dominant role of pauses in the collective motion-related decision-making of locusts. The presented insights contribute to a deeper general understanding of how intermittent motion contributes to group cohesion and coordination in animal swarms.
摘要:
间歇性运动在动物运动中普遍存在。特别感兴趣的是集体运动,其中必须处理社会和环境信息,以建立协调的运动。我们在蝗虫中探索了这种联系,专注于间歇性运动如何与蜂群相关的基于视觉的决策相互作用。使用一种新颖的方法,我们比较了蝗虫个体对连续运动刺激的反应,它们在半闭环条件下的反应,其中刺激与蝗虫行走同相移动,或者异相,即只在蝗虫暂停期间。我们的发现清楚地表明,在停顿期间出现视觉刺激时,蝗虫做出反应并“加入成群运动”的趋势更大。因此,本研究强烈证实了先前的迹象,即停顿在蝗虫集体运动相关决策中的主导作用。提出的见解有助于更深入地了解间歇性运动如何促进动物群中的群体凝聚力和协调性。