Negative feedback enables fast and flexible collective decision-making in ants.

Positive feedback plays a major role in the emergence of many collective animal behaviours. In many ants pheromone trails recruit and direct nestmate foragers to food sources. The strong positive feedback caused by trail pheromones allows fast collective responses but can compromise flexibility. Pre...

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Autores principales:	Christoph Grüter, Roger Schürch, Tomer J Czaczkes, Keeley Taylor, Thomas Durance, Sam M Jones, Francis L W Ratnieks
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2012
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c40c5be9a7a24d358b1e729adab3f03d
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c40c5be9a7a24d358b1e729adab3f03d2021-11-18T07:05:52ZNegative feedback enables fast and flexible collective decision-making in ants.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0044501https://doaj.org/article/c40c5be9a7a24d358b1e729adab3f03d2012-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/22984518/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Positive feedback plays a major role in the emergence of many collective animal behaviours. In many ants pheromone trails recruit and direct nestmate foragers to food sources. The strong positive feedback caused by trail pheromones allows fast collective responses but can compromise flexibility. Previous laboratory experiments have shown that when the environment changes, colonies are often unable to reallocate their foragers to a more rewarding food source. Here we show both experimentally, using colonies of Lasius niger, and with an agent-based simulation model, that negative feedback caused by crowding at feeding sites allows ant colonies to maintain foraging flexibility even with strong recruitment to food sources. In a constant environment, negative feedback prevents the frequently found bias towards one feeder (symmetry breaking) and leads to equal distribution of foragers. In a changing environment, negative feedback allows a colony to quickly reallocate the majority of its foragers to a superior food patch that becomes available when foraging at an inferior patch is already well underway. The model confirms these experimental findings and shows that the ability of colonies to switch to a superior food source does not require the decay of trail pheromones. Our results help to resolve inconsistencies between collective foraging patterns seen in laboratory studies and observations in the wild, and show that the simultaneous action of negative and positive feedback is important for efficient foraging in mass-recruiting insect colonies.Christoph GrüterRoger SchürchTomer J CzaczkesKeeley TaylorThomas DuranceSam M JonesFrancis L W RatnieksPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 9, p e44501 (2012)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Christoph Grüter Roger Schürch Tomer J Czaczkes Keeley Taylor Thomas Durance Sam M Jones Francis L W Ratnieks Negative feedback enables fast and flexible collective decision-making in ants.
description	Positive feedback plays a major role in the emergence of many collective animal behaviours. In many ants pheromone trails recruit and direct nestmate foragers to food sources. The strong positive feedback caused by trail pheromones allows fast collective responses but can compromise flexibility. Previous laboratory experiments have shown that when the environment changes, colonies are often unable to reallocate their foragers to a more rewarding food source. Here we show both experimentally, using colonies of Lasius niger, and with an agent-based simulation model, that negative feedback caused by crowding at feeding sites allows ant colonies to maintain foraging flexibility even with strong recruitment to food sources. In a constant environment, negative feedback prevents the frequently found bias towards one feeder (symmetry breaking) and leads to equal distribution of foragers. In a changing environment, negative feedback allows a colony to quickly reallocate the majority of its foragers to a superior food patch that becomes available when foraging at an inferior patch is already well underway. The model confirms these experimental findings and shows that the ability of colonies to switch to a superior food source does not require the decay of trail pheromones. Our results help to resolve inconsistencies between collective foraging patterns seen in laboratory studies and observations in the wild, and show that the simultaneous action of negative and positive feedback is important for efficient foraging in mass-recruiting insect colonies.
format	article
author	Christoph Grüter Roger Schürch Tomer J Czaczkes Keeley Taylor Thomas Durance Sam M Jones Francis L W Ratnieks
author_facet	Christoph Grüter Roger Schürch Tomer J Czaczkes Keeley Taylor Thomas Durance Sam M Jones Francis L W Ratnieks
author_sort	Christoph Grüter
title	Negative feedback enables fast and flexible collective decision-making in ants.
title_short	Negative feedback enables fast and flexible collective decision-making in ants.
title_full	Negative feedback enables fast and flexible collective decision-making in ants.
title_fullStr	Negative feedback enables fast and flexible collective decision-making in ants.
title_full_unstemmed	Negative feedback enables fast and flexible collective decision-making in ants.
title_sort	negative feedback enables fast and flexible collective decision-making in ants.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2012
url	https://doaj.org/article/c40c5be9a7a24d358b1e729adab3f03d
work_keys_str_mv	AT christophgruter negativefeedbackenablesfastandflexiblecollectivedecisionmakinginants AT rogerschurch negativefeedbackenablesfastandflexiblecollectivedecisionmakinginants AT tomerjczaczkes negativefeedbackenablesfastandflexiblecollectivedecisionmakinginants AT keeleytaylor negativefeedbackenablesfastandflexiblecollectivedecisionmakinginants AT thomasdurance negativefeedbackenablesfastandflexiblecollectivedecisionmakinginants AT sammjones negativefeedbackenablesfastandflexiblecollectivedecisionmakinginants AT francislwratnieks negativefeedbackenablesfastandflexiblecollectivedecisionmakinginants
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Negative feedback enables fast and flexible collective decision-making in ants.

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