Stochastic integrator models of collective decision-making

集体决策的随机积分模型

• 批准号: 8792226
• 负责人: MARK S GOLDMAN
• 金额: $ 19.73万
• 依托单位: STANFORD UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-04-10 至 2017-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8792226
• 关键词: Address; Ants; Behavior; Behavioral; Biological Models; Brain; Chemicals; Climate; Code; Collaborations; Complex; Cues; Data; Decision Making; Desiccation; Disease; Eating; Ecology; Environment; Equilibrium; Feedback; Film; Food; Goals; Health; Human; Individual; Kinetics; Left; Life; Link; Longitudinal Studies; Major Depressive Disorder; Measures; Methods; Mission; Modeling; Movement; Nest Leaving; Neurons; Neurosciences; Neurotransmitters; Pheromone; Population; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders; Probability; Process; Regulation; Research; Role; Seeds; Signal Transduction; Social Behavior; Social Interaction; Societies; Source; Stress; Structure; Synapses; Synaptic Vesicles; System; Techniques; Testing; Time; To specify; United States National Institutes of Health; Vesicle; Work; base; behavioral study; cost; environmental change; insight; member; resilience; response; social; social group; theories; trafficking

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Most social behavior occurs in response to interaction, yet the collective processes that regulate the behavior of social groups are poorly understood. Elucidating the role of interactions in regulating social behavior requires a simple model system in which to study the dynamical processes that allow social groups to respond to changing environmental conditions. Our long-term goal is to use the red harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus, as a model for investigating the collective regulation of behavior that leads to the resilience of social groups. Our project brings together a unique 25-year study of the behavior and ecology of a natural population of harvester ant colonies, with theoretical advances in neuroscience. We draw on the strong correspondences between the accumulation of chemical signals made by ants deciding whether to forage and the accumulation of signals that underlie decision-making at the synaptic, neuronal, and behavioral levels in neuroscience. Ant colonies operate without central control, using networks of simple interactions to regulate foraging activity and adjust to current ecological conditions. Previous work shows that the probability that outgoing foragers leave the nest, and thus the colony's overall level of foraging activity, depends on their rate of interactio with returning successful foragers. The rate of forager return depends on search time and thus on food availability. Aim 1 investigates what mechanisms allow individual ants to make foraging decisions based on social contact with other ants. We will develop a leaky integrator model, closely analogous to the stochastic accumulator models of neuroscience, for how individual ants accumulate signals in support of the decision to forage. The model predictions will be tested, and model parameters evaluated, in colonies in the field using methods applied successfully in previous work. Aim 2 seeks to explain the overall rate of colony foraging activity and trafficking of ants between forager pools inside the nest. Using colonies in the field, we will test an expanded version of the model that includes the trafficking of ants from reserve to outgoing foragers, using theory inspired by the similar trafficking of neurotransmitter vesicles in synapses Aim 3 investigates the plasticity of foraging behavior, using the models developed in Aims 1 and 2 to test whether colonies can adjust parameters in response to environmental conditions, and evaluating how collective decisions determine the resilience of the colony. Findings from this research will contribute to the mission of NIH by providing fundamental insight into the collective regulation of social behavior in response to environmental cues and social interactions.

描述（由申请人提供）： 大多数社会行为是对互动的反应而发生的，但人们对调节社会群体行为的集体过程却知之甚少。阐明互动在调节社会行为中的作用需要一个简单的模型系统，在该系统中研究允许社会群体对不断变化的环境条件做出反应的动态过程。我们的长期目标是使用红色收割蚁 Pogonomyrmex barbatus 作为模型来研究导致社会群体恢复能力的行为集体调节。我们的项目汇集了对自然收割蚁群的行为和生态学长达 25 年的独特研究，以及神经科学方面的理论进展。我们利用蚂蚁决定是否觅食时产生的化学信号积累与神经科学中突触、神经元和行为层面决策基础信号积累之间的强烈对应关系。蚁群的运作没有中央控制，利用简单的相互作用网络来调节觅食活动并适应当前的生态条件。先前的研究表明，外出觅食者离开巢穴的概率以及群体觅食活动的总体水平取决于它们与成功返回的觅食者的互动率。觅食者的返回率取决于搜索时间，从而取决于食物的供应情况。目标 1 研究哪些机制允许个体蚂蚁根据与其他蚂蚁的社会接触做出觅食决定。我们将开发一个泄漏积分器模型，与神经科学的随机累加器模型非常相似，用于了解个体蚂蚁如何积累信号以支持觅食决策。将使用先前工作中成功应用的方法在现场菌落中测试模型预测并评估模型参数。目标 2 试图解释蚁群觅食活动和巢穴内觅食池之间蚂蚁贩运的总体速率。我们将使用实地蚁群来测试该模型的扩展版本，其中包括将蚂蚁从保留地贩运到外出觅食者，所用的理论受到突触中神经递质囊泡的类似贩运的启发。目标 3 研究了觅食行为的可塑性，使用目标 1 和 2 中开发的模型用于测试群体是否能够根据环境条件调整参数，并评估集体决策如何决定群体的恢复能力。这项研究的结果将为 NIH 的使命做出贡献，提供对集体的基本见解 根据环境线索和社会互动来调节社会行为。