BRC-BIO: Emergent dynamics and leadership in collective timing decisions

群体中个人的决策能力(“集体决策”)对多种动物物种的生存和成功至关重要，对包括管理机构、公司和社交媒体在内的许多人类活动也是如此。随着我们的社会在不久的将来面临重大、大规模的挑战，了解什么样的动力可以导致有效的决策-以及哪些动力导致功能失调的群体-变得越来越重要。有一个领域研究得特别少，但在生态学和进化论上很重要，那就是群体如何决定时机，比如什么时候开始迁徙，什么时候逃离逼近的捕食者。在这个项目中，将进行一系列实验室实验，通过利用现有技术自动检测和跟踪移动的动物，来研究一种鱼群的集体时机决定。在数学模型预测的指导下，该项目将询问群体对各种时间刺激的反应；群体内部如何出现领导力；以及动物达成共识所遵循的规则。该项目将在美国最多元化的大学之一的跨学科研究实验室为一名博士生和三名本科生提供宝贵的培训和指导。该项目的结果将提供关于脆弱的社会动物如何应对气候变化预期影响的重要信息，并可能为保护这些物种的战略提供参考。集体决策是一种无处不在的策略，各种规模的生物系统都会利用这种策略来提高自己的适应能力。到目前为止，大多数研究都集中在群体在环境中同时可用的选项中做出决定，例如离散的食物补丁或迁徙方向。然而，对动物的健康同样重要的是关于时机的决定，比如什么时候开始迁徙，什么时候开始逃离逼近的捕食者。时间决定与空间决定是根本不同的；例如，“选项”(时间中的时刻)是按顺序呈现的，一旦那个时刻过去就不能选择了。由于这种差异和其他差异，与空间决策相比，数学模型预测的战略和结果明显不同。为了在实验室中建立研究能力，该项目将开发两个通用跟踪工具包：一个简单、快速、廉价，可以进一步开发为本科和高中课堂使用的教育工具包；另一个使用同行评议的软件包，允许在长时间尺度上对个人进行无标记跟踪。这两个工具包将被用来了解社会动物如何学习一个或多个相关的时间；它们如何应对事件时间的不确定性；领导力和集体记忆是如何形成的；以及鱼类使用什么信号机制来建立对时间事件的共识。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The ability of individuals in groups to make decisions (“collective decision making”) is critical to the survival and success of a wide variety of animal species, as well as many human endeavors, including governing bodies, corporations, and social media. Understanding what kinds of dynamics can lead to effective decision-making – and which lead to dysfunctional groups – is increasingly important as our society faces major, large-scale challenges in the near future. One area that is particularly understudied, but ecologically and evolutionary important, is how groups making decisions about timing, such as when to begin a migration or when to flee from an approaching predator. In this project, a series of laboratory experiments will be conducted to study collective timing decisions in a species of schooling fish by leveraging existing technologies to automatically detect and track moving animals. Guided by predictions from mathematical models, the project will ask how groups respond to a variety of timing stimuli; how leadership emerges within the group; and the rules that the animals follow to reach a consensus. The project will provide valuable training and mentorship for one Ph.D. student and three undergraduate students within a transdisciplinary research lab situated in one of the most diverse universities in the U.S. The results of the project will provide important information about how vulnerable social animals may respond to predicted effects of climate change and may inform strategies to protect these species. Collective decision-making is a ubiquitous strategy that biological systems at all scales exploit to improve their fitness. Most of the research to date has focused on groups deciding amongst options that are simultaneously available in the environment, such as discrete food patches or migration directions. However, equally important to an animal’s fitness are decisions about timing, such as when to initiate a migration or when to begin to flee from an approaching predator. Timing decisions are fundamentally different from spatial decisions; for example, the ‘options’ (moments in time) present themselves sequentially and cannot be selected once that moment has passed. Because of this and other differences, mathematical models predict markedly different strategies and outcomes compared to spatial decision-making. To build research capacity in the lab, this project will develop two general-purpose tracking kits: one that is simple, fast, and cheap, and which can be further developed into an educational kit for use in undergraduate and high school classes; and one that uses peer-reviewed software packages that allow for markerless tracking of individuals over long time scales. These two kits will be deployed to understand how social animals learn about one or more relevant times; how they respond to uncertainty in the timing of events; how leadership and collective memory forms; and what signaling mechanisms fish use to build consensus about a timing event.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.