Consensus driven by a minority in heterogenous groups of the cockroach Periplaneta americana

Mariano Calvo Martín,Max Eeckhout,Jean-Louis Deneubourg,Stamatios C Nicolis

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.102723

Mariano Calvo Martín, Max Eeckhout + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102723

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Journal: iScience	Publication Date: Jun 12, 2021
Citations: 7	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Université Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract

SummaryMany social species are able to perform collective decisions and reach consensus. However, how the interplay between social interactions, the diversity of preferences among the group members and the group size affects these dynamics is usually overlooked. The collective choice between odourous and odorless shelters is tested for the following three groups of social cockroaches (Periplaneta americana) which are solitary foragers: naive (individuals preferring the odorous shelter), conditioned (individuals without preference), and mixed (combining, unevenly, conditioned, and naive individuals). The robustness of the consensus is not affected by the naive individuals' proportion, but the rate and the frequency of selection of the odorous shelter are correlated to this proportion. In mixed groups, the naive individuals act as influencers. Simulations based on the mechanisms highlighted in our experiments predict that the consensus emerges only for intermediate group sizes. The universality of these mechanisms suggests that such phenomena are widely present in social systems.

Highlights

Aggregation, which results in an uneven distribution of individuals through space, is a widespread behavior occurring in living organisms, from unicellular organisms to mammals (Camazine et al, 2003; Sumpter, 2010)
The robustness of the consensus is not affected by the naive individuals’ proportion, but the rate and the frequency of selection of the odorous shelter are correlated to this proportion
The naive individuals act as influencers

Summary

Introduction

Aggregation, which results in an uneven distribution of individuals through space, is a widespread behavior occurring in living organisms, from unicellular organisms to mammals (Camazine et al, 2003; Sumpter, 2010) In arthropods, this behavior can be observed at specific life cycle stages (e.g., during larval states) (Krafft et al, 1986), under unfavourable external conditions (e.g., winter) (Prokopy and Roitberg, 2001) or, in the case of gregarious and eusocial species, in numerous daily activities (Costa, 2006; Jeanson et al, 2004). Mainly present in the antenna, generate a response depending on the type of odor and its concentration (Bell and Adiyodi, 1981; Paoli et al, 2020)

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