Monday 22 May 2017

Diverse populations make rational collective decisions




Date: May 17, 2017
Source: Hokkaido University

Understanding how ant colonies make collective decisions could provide insight into the functioning of the human brain.

Yes/no binary decisions by individual ants can lead to a rational decision as a collective when the individuals have differing preferences to the subject, according to research recently published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. This binary mechanism of decision-making could provide a basis for understanding how neurons in the human brain, which also make binary choices, work together.

Honey bees are known to "dance" with varying levels of enthusiasm depending on the quality of nectar they find. The more attractive the nectar is, the stronger they dance, appealing to other members. As a result, the majority of the members, and later the entire colony, gather to the better option. However, this mechanism doesn't explain how a collective rationality within the brain is made because neurons can only make binary decisions.

Tatsuhiro Yamamoto and Eisuke Hasegawa of Hokkaido University's Laboratory of Animal Ecology set up six experimental colonies of 56 Myrmica kotokui ants. Each individual ant was marked to distinguish them from one another.

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