Easter C, Leadbeater E, Hasenjager MJ. Behavioural variation among workers promotes feed-forward loops in a simulated insect colony.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2022;
9:220120. [PMID:
35316950 PMCID:
PMC8889185 DOI:
10.1098/rsos.220120]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2022] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Coordinated responses in eusocial insect colonies arise from worker interaction networks that enable collective processing of ecologically relevant information. Previous studies have detected a structural motif in these networks known as the feed-forward loop, which functions to process information in other biological regulatory networks (e.g. transcriptional networks). However, the processes that generate feed-forward loops among workers and the consequences for information flow within the colony remain largely unexplored. We constructed an agent-based model to investigate how individual variation in activity and movement shaped the production of feed-forward loops in a simulated insect colony. We hypothesized that individual variation along these axes would generate feed-forward loops by driving variation in interaction frequency among workers. We found that among-individual variation in activity drove over-representation of feed-forward loops in the interaction networks by determining the directionality of interactions. However, despite previous work linking feed-forward loops with efficient information transfer, activity variation did not promote faster or more efficient information flow, thus providing no support for the hypothesis that feed-forward loops reflect selection for enhanced collective functioning. Conversely, individual variation in movement trajectory, despite playing no role in generating feed-forward loops, promoted fast and efficient information flow by linking together otherwise unconnected regions of the nest.
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