BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Collective Sensing and Decision-Making in Animal Groups: From Fish
  Schools to Primate Societies - Iain Couzin
DTSTART:20151118T160000Z
DTEND:20151118T170000Z
UID:TALK60746@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:42128
DESCRIPTION:Director\, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology\, Department o
 f Collective Behaviour\, Konstanz\, Germany\nChair of Biodiversity and Col
 lective Behaviour\, Department of Biology\, University of Konstanz\, Germa
 ny\nhttp://icouzin.princeton.edu/\n \nUnderstanding how social influence s
 hapes biological processes is a central challenge in contemporary science\
 , essential for achieving progress in a variety of fields ranging from the
  organization and evolution of coordinated collective action among cells\,
  or animals\, to the dynamics of information exchange in human societies. 
 Using an integrated experimental and theoretical approach I will address h
 ow\, and why\, animals exhibit highly-coordinated collective behavior. A m
 ajor limitation in the study of large animal groups is that it has not bee
 n possible to observe directly the pathways of communication\, and social 
 networks are typically based on proxies [1]. I will demonstrate new imagin
 g technology that allows us to reconstruct (automatically) the dynamic\, t
 ime-varying networks that correspond to the visual cues employed by organi
 sms when making movement decisions. Sensory networks are shown to provide 
 a much more accurate representation of how social influence propagates in 
 groups [2]\, and their analysis allows us to identify\, for any instant in
  time\, the most socially-influential individuals within groups\, and to p
 redict the magnitude of complex behavioral cascades at the moment of their
  initiation\, before they actually occur [3]. I will also investigate the 
 coupling between spatial and information dynamics in groups and reveal tha
 t emergent problem solving is the predominant mechanism by which mobile gr
 oups sense\, and respond to complex environmental gradients [4]. This dist
 ributed sensing requires rudimentary cognition and is shown to be highly r
 obust to noise. Evolutionary modeling demonstrates such behavior readily e
 volves within populations of selfish organisms\, allowing individuals to c
 ompute collectively the spatial distribution of resources and to allocate 
 themselves effectively among distinct\, and distant\, resource patches\, w
 ithout requiring information about the number\, location or size of patche
 s. Finally I will reveal the critical role uninformed individuals (those w
 ho have no information about the feature upon which a collective decision 
 is being made) play in fast\, and effective\, democratic consensus decisio
 n-making in collectives [5\,6] and will test these predictions with experi
 ments involving schooling fish [6] and wild baboons [7].\n \n1.     Couzin
 \, I.D. (2007) Collective minds. Nature 455\, 715.\n2.     Strandburg-Pesh
 kin\, A.\, Twomey\, C.R.\, Bode\, N.W.\, Kao\, A.B.\, Katz\, Y.\, Ioannou\
 , C.C.\, Rosenthal\, S.B.\, Torney\, C.J.\, Wu\, H.\, Levin\, S.A. & Couzi
 n\, I.D. (2013) Visual sensory networks and effective information transfer
  in animal groups\, Current Biology 23(17)\, R709-711.\n3.     Rosenthal\,
  S.B.\, Twomey\, C.R.\, Hartnett\, A.T.\, Wu\, H.S. & Couzin\, I.D. (2015)
  Revealing the hidden networks of interaction in mobile animal groups allo
 ws prediction of complex behavioral contagion\, PNAS 112(15)\, 4690-4695.\
 n4.     Berdahl\, A.\, Torney\, C.J.\, Ioannou\, C.C.\, Faria\, J. & Couzi
 n\, I.D. (2013) Emergent sensing of complex environments by mobile animal 
 groups\, Science 339(6119) 574-576.\n5.     Couzin\, I.D.\, Krause\, J.\, 
 Franks\, N.R. & Levin\, S.A. (2005) Effective leadership and decision maki
 ng in animal groups on the move. Nature 433\, 513-516.\n6.     Couzin\, I.
 D.\, Ioannou\, C.C.\, Demirel\, G.\, Gross\, T.\, Torney\, C.J.\, Hartnett
 \, A.\, Conradt\, L.\, Levin\, S.A. & Leonard\, N.E. (2011) Uninformed ind
 ividuals promote democratic consensus in animal groups. Science 334(6062) 
 1578-1580.\n7.     Strandburg-Peshkin\, A.\, Farine\, D.R.\, Couzin\, I.D.
  & Crofoot\, M.C. (2015) Shared decision-making drives collective movement
  in wild baboons. Science 348(6241)\, 1358-1361\n
LOCATION:Main Lecture Theatre\, Department of Zoology\, New Museum Site
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR