The geometry of decision-making in individuals and collectives
Choosing among spatially distributed options is a central challenge for animals, from deciding among alternative potential food sources or refuges to choosing with whom to associate. Using an integrated theoretical and experimental approach (employing immersive virtual reality), we consider the inte...
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Published in | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 118; no. 50; p. 1 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
National Academy of Sciences
14.12.2021
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Choosing among spatially distributed options is a central challenge for animals, from deciding among alternative potential food sources or refuges to choosing with whom to associate. Using an integrated theoretical and experimental approach (employing immersive virtual reality), we consider the interplay between movement and vectorial integration during decision-making regarding two, or more, options in space. In computational models of this process, we reveal the occurrence of spontaneous and abrupt "critical" transitions (associated with specific geometrical relationships) whereby organisms spontaneously switch from averaging vectorial information among, to suddenly excluding one among, the remaining options. This bifurcation process repeats until only one option-the one ultimately selected-remains. Thus, we predict that the brain repeatedly breaks multichoice decisions into a series of binary decisions in space-time. Experiments with fruit flies, desert locusts, and larval zebrafish reveal that they exhibit these same bifurcations, demonstrating that across taxa and ecological contexts, there exist fundamental geometric principles that are essential to explain how, and why, animals move the way they do. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Edited by Raghavendra Gadagkar, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India; received February 2, 2021; accepted October 19, 2021 Author contributions: V.H.S., N.S.G., and I.D.C. designed research; V.H.S., L.L., and B.R.S. performed research; V.H.S., L.L., M.N., and I.D.C. analyzed data; V.H.S., D.G., T.S., N.S.G., and I.D.C. constructed the model; and V.H.S., L.L., D.G., M.N., B.R.S., T.S., N.S.G., and I.D.C. wrote the paper. |
ISSN: | 0027-8424 1091-6490 |
DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.2102157118 |