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Overview

This meeting is postponed. More details to follow.

Scientific discussion meeting organised by Dr Christos Ioannou and Dr Kate Laskowski.

Great strides have been made in understanding the mechanisms underlying collective behaviour in animals using the complex systems approach common in the physical sciences. This work however focuses on snapshots of collective behaviour. The goal of this meeting is to integrate the study of collective behaviour over time: how does it develop and how does it evolve?

Speaker abstracts will be available closer to the meeting. Recorded audio of the presentations will be available on this page after the meeting has taken place. 

Attending the event

This meeting is postponed. More details to follow. 

Enquiries: contact the Scientific Programmes team.

 

Organisers

Schedule


Chair

09:00-09:05
Welcome by the Royal Society and lead organiser
09:05-09:35
Development of collective behaviour in zebrafish

Speakers

09:35-09:45
Discussion
09:45-10:15
TBC

Speakers

10:15-10:25
Discussion
10:25-10:50
Coffee
10:50-11:20
Ageing in a social context

Speakers

11:20-11:30
Discussion
11:30-12:00
Early behavioural plasticity in slime molds

Speakers

12:00-12:10
Discussion
12:10-13:10
Lunch

Chair

13:10-13:40
Ontogenesis of the self-assembling swarm: building and maintaining collective function in a variable world

Speakers

13:40-13:50
Discussion
13:50-14:20
Developmental stress and the collective

Speakers

14:20-14:30
Discussion
14:30-14:55
Tea
14:55-15:25
Social network structure and social selection depend on nutritional environment in Drosophila

Speakers

15:25-15:35
Discussion
15:35-16:05
Emergence and repeatability of leadership and coordinated motion in stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) shoals

Abstract

Studies of self-organising groups like schools of fish or flocks of birds has sought to uncover the behavioural rules individuals use (local-level interactions) to coordinate their motion (global-level patterns). However, empirical studies tend to focus on ‘one-off’ events and study groups that are in a ‘coordinated’ behavioural state. As a result we have a poor understanding of if and how behavioural rules develop and/or are maintained in groups. This talk will review evidence for emergence and repeatability of coordinated motion and present a case study with shoals of stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Shoals were introduced to a simple environment, and their position recorded from video using a bespoke tracking algorithm. At the start of trials shoals were uncoordinated in their motion and quickly transitioned to a coordinated state with defined individual leader-follower roles. These leader-follower identities were found to be repeatable across two trials, and the onset of coordination was quicker during the second trial. The emergence and repeatability of coordinated motion in stickleback fish shoals described likely benefits wild individuals living in a system with high fission-fusion dynamics and non-random patterns of association between subsets of individuals.

Speakers

16:05-16:15
Discussion
16:15-16:30
Discussion/Overview (future directions)

Chair

09:00-09:30
The wisdom of flocks: from collective intelligence to cultural evolution

Speakers

09:30-09:40
Discussion
09:40-10:10
Revealing universal principles of decision-making in neural and animal collectives

Speakers

10:10-10:20
Discussion
10:20-10:45
Coffee
10:45-11:15
The evolution and emergence of inter-group cooperative behaviour

Speakers

11:15-11:25
Discussion
11:25-11:55
Selection for individually optimal decision making can lead to optimal group decisions or to information cascades

Speakers

11:55-12:05
Discussion
12:05-13:05
Lunch

Chair

13:05-13:35
Stochastic assortment and the evolution of costly traits in animal groups

Speakers

13:35-13:45
Discussion
13:45-14:15
The adaptive benefits of collective antipredator behaviour

Speakers

14:15-14:25
Discussion
14:25-14:50
Tea
14:50-15:20
A comparative perspective on collective behaviour

Speakers

15:20-15:30
Discussion
15:30-16:00
Transitions in collective behaviour across the major transition to superorganismality

Speakers

16:00-16:10
Discussion
16:10-17:00
Panel discussion/Overview (future directions)