Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2023
Volume 68, Number 3
Las Vegas, Nevada (March 5-10)
Virtual (March 20-22); Time Zone: Pacific Time
Session S14: Social InteractionsFocus
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Sponsoring Units: DBIO Chair: Orit Peleg, University of Colorado Boulder Room: Room 206 |
Thursday, March 9, 2023 8:00AM - 8:36AM |
S14.00001: A tool to sing louder and an amplifier to hear better Invited Speaker: Natasha Mhatre Crickets use sound to mediate one their most important social interactions, finding and selecting mates. The louder the sound they can make, the further it reaches and more attractive it is. Most crickets increase their acoustic space by tuning the structural mechanics of their morphology. In most species, song producing wings and sound recieving eardrums resonate at the same frequency, forming a simple matched filter system. Tree crickets, however, use communication strategies that can be considered more active. In this talk, I will present some research which shows how the signallers, the male tree crickets use a behavioural strategy to make themselves louder. They manufacture a baffle, a tool that makes them louder. In fact, using a series of models and experiments, we found that not only do they manufacture a tool, but they manufacture an optimal tool. On the reciever end, female tree crickets use an auditory amplifier. They have an active physiological system that selectively amplifies their auditory mechanics. Using careful neurobiology, we show that the amplifier does not make them more sensitive in comparison to other crickets. Rather, it allows them to alter the frequency they are sensitive to, in response to ambient temperature. This allows them to remain sensitive to males whose signalling frequency also changes with temperature. What is even more remarkable is that this amplification appears to be achieved through the activity of only a handful of motor proteins. Both findings underline the richness of invertebrate behaviour and biophysics, and point to a wealth of innovations yet to be discovered even among these 'simple' organisms. |
Thursday, March 9, 2023 8:36AM - 8:48AM |
S14.00002: Capturing the Social Spectrum in ASD Rats Ugne Klibaite, Tianqing Li, Diego Aldarondo, Timothy Dunn, Bence P Olveczky Social interaction is a core component of animal behavior. Describing it in rigorous and quantitative ways requires unsupervised tracking of spontaneous social behaviors. We achieve this by extending a recently developed technique for 3D kinematic tracking of single animals (DANNCE) to freely interacting animals (social-DANNCE). Using this method, we acquired a rich dataset of interactions across pairings from autism spectrum disorder (ASD) knockout rats and their wild-type counterparts. Using a multi-scale dynamical embedding approach to parse animal movement in both solitary and social contexts, we describe differential expression of both individual and social behavior. Our framework for quantifying and comparing interactions in paired animals revealed a spectrum of changes in social behavior that depend both on the strain of the animal and the identity of its social partner. This approach promises to greatly facilitate quantitative studies of social behaviors and their neurobiological underpinnings. |
Thursday, March 9, 2023 8:48AM - 9:00AM |
S14.00003: Sworms: how nematodes aggregate and move together Serena Ding Many species of nematodes form aggregates together and collective behaviour is likely to be highly relevant for their boom-and-bust lifestyle. In C. elegans the genetic and neuronal mechanisms behind aggregating vs. solitary group-level phenotypes had long been resolved, and we recently determined the behavioural mechanism too. Using quantitative behavioural imaging and agent-based modeling, we identified three local interactions rules that individual worms follow to aggregate and swarm together. We now ask how conserved the mechanisms are in other aggregating nematode species to peek into the evolutionary history of collective behaviour in this phylum. |
Thursday, March 9, 2023 9:00AM - 9:12AM |
S14.00004: Exploring open- and closed-loop communication between fireflies and LEDs Owen Martin, Nataliya Nechyporenko, Sanskar Katiyar, William P McDonnell, Kaushik Jayaram, Orit Peleg Several species of male fireflies display a dazzling ability to synchronize their flash timings when interacting in mating swarms. When individuals are kept in isolated tents, similar synchronization can be induced via exposure to a fixed-frequency LED near the natural frequency of the individual firefly. This is a closed-loop interaction in which the firefly responds to the artificial light signal, but the light signal does not respond to the firefly. Here we explore trials of the first-ever open-loop communication system between fireflies and LEDs, where the behavior of the firefly and the LED both influence each other. Using applied computer vision, we enable a Raspberry Pi connected to a camera and a LED to communicate with captive fireflies via mathematical models of synchronization. We present details of the implementation and preliminary results from a pilot field season introducing the system to two species of fireflies. Finally, we explore applications of such a system in the context of perturbing natural fireflies and inducing behavioral changes in swarms. |
Thursday, March 9, 2023 9:12AM - 9:24AM |
S14.00005: Leveraging behavioral variability for robust classification of firefly flash signals Chantal Nguyen, Owen Martin, Chantal Nguyen, Raphael Sarfati, Murad Chowdhury, Michael Iuzzolino, Dieu My Nguyen, Ryan Layer, Orit Peleg Swarms of fireflies flash in patterns to advertise their presence to potential mates, resulting in dazzling light displays. However, light pollution, climate change, and other factors are threatening firefly populations worldwide. This reality has kickstarted conservation efforts rooted in a quantitative understanding of firefly signaling behavior. Here, we present a high-throughput analysis pipeline to extract trajectories and flash patterns of individual fireflies recorded in the field. We observe significant behavioral variability within species, which mandates a characterization of firefly flash behavior that extends beyond the prior practice of representing a species by a single discrete pattern. We then train a recurrent neural network using flash pattern data to accurately classify firefly species. Our computational methods enable an extensive characterization of how signaling behaviors vary spatially and temporally across firefly populations and species around the globe. |
Thursday, March 9, 2023 9:24AM - 9:36AM |
S14.00006: The Use of Laser Speckle Spectroscopy for Subtle Detection of Infantile Ants Hosain Bagheri, Paige Caine, Daniel Soto, Michael D Goodisman, Daniel I Goldman Diverse organisms, ranging from microorganisms to mammals, inhabit subterranean environments, living portions or all of their life underground. The opacity of the media in which they reside creates difficulties for monitoring behaviors. Social insects, like termites and ants are of interest due to their surface and subsurface collective behaviors. Thus, it is important to develop techniques for detecting subterranean movements. Diffusing-wave spectroscopy has previously been used for examining dry and cohesive granular dynamics (e.g., shearing, creeping, jamming). This non-invasive technique measures small deformations induced in the medium. One potential application is exploring the mechanical movements of trapped and buried insects, such as ants, which has previously (Spangler, Science, 1967) been linked to collective rescue behavior. To capture delicate movements of different ant infantile stages (i.e., larvae, pupae) buried within ~700 μm glass particles at 1-5 cm depths, we focus a HeNe laser on the medium and digitally capture the backscatter speckle pattern. By evaluating the speckle pattern over time, we categorize movement frequency, length, and intensity by changes in pixel intensity. As the ant’s developmental stage progresses, movement frequency and duration increases. Since ants sense medium vibration through their body via their subgenual organs, we hypothesize that subterranean mechanical cues could be used by ants for non-visual location of nestmates. |
Thursday, March 9, 2023 9:36AM - 9:48AM |
S14.00007: Density-Functional Fluctuation Theory (DFFT) Approach to Modeling Basketball Boris Barron, Nathan S Sitaraman, Tomas A Arias Approaches inspired by density functional theory (DFT) have recently found success in modeling a variety of social systems, often through the use of density-functional fluctuation theory (DFFT). In this work, we extend the application to sports by analyzing highly detailed data of basketball player positions collected over the last decade. Not only does DFFT allow us to determine where a player is likely to be given positions of the other players and the ball, but it also enables accurate prediction of whether a particular position is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, as determined by the probability of resulting in a ‘high-quality’ shot. The underlying DFFT description then provides a data-driven approach to determine how players influence the outcome of basketball plays through their positioning and establishes a new method for quantifying a player's value to the team that is substantially more nuanced than traditional metrics which focus on a player’s actions with the ball. Further, as the approach presented here is quite general, DFFT can be expected to benefit sports more broadly as detailed positional data becomes increasingly available in a variety of amateur and professional sports. |
Thursday, March 9, 2023 9:48AM - 10:00AM |
S14.00008: Crystallography of honeycomb formation under geometric frustration Golnar Gharooni Fard, Francisco Lopez Jimenez, Orit Peleg Honeybees are known to collectively construct highly regular hexagonal structures of the honeycomb in a distributive manner. As they naturally build comb on tree branches or cavities, they are often faced with various geometric constraints, resulting in non-regular hexagons of different sizes with topological defects. In this work, we study how bees collectively adapt to their environment to regulate the honeycomb. We 3D-print experimental frames with imprinted foundations and gaps to study the features of the comb built under various geometric frustrations such as different sizes, orientations, and shapes. We then use X-ray tomography and computer vision techniques to compare comb built under different given cell sizes and study how bees transition between them, as well as the comb built to connect the vertical, horizontal and curved-shaped gaps with various orientations. We find that the structure of the honeycomb under various frustrations show clear evidence of recurring patterns and can be replicated through a computational model of crystallographic lattice formation, in which the minimized potential is a variation of the Lennard-Jones potential that only considers first-neighbor interactions according to a Delaunay triangulation. Our model provides a description for the emergence of the global patterns in the honeycomb structure using local rules and information. It also extends the application of the Lennard-Jones model beyond the physical domain to encompass biological systems, thereby demonstrating its universality. |
Thursday, March 9, 2023 10:00AM - 10:12AM |
S14.00009: On the emergence of winner and loser in zebrafish fights Liam G O'Shaughnessy, Tatsuo Izawa, Joshua W Shaevitz, Greg J Stephens To resolve disputes, compete for resources, and establish social hierarchies, many animals engage in pair-wise aggressive interactions known as fights. Fights represent a sequence of stereotyped dynamics that lead to the establishment of a winner and a loser. We present work quantifying the emergence of a winner and loser in adult male zebrafish fights. We track multiple body points in 3D and identify a low-dimensional set of state variables for the relative positions and orientations of the fish. We cluster the temporal transitions in this state space to create a symbolic dynamics of short (~1 sec) multi-animal behavioral motifs. As the fight evolves, an asymmetry between the fish develops. The distribution of relative orientations is initially symmetric when the fight begins, but becomes asymmetric as the winner establishes an advantageous position behind the loser for many minutes. To probe the emergence of a winner and loser, we study the progression of this asymmetry and the dynamical features that ultimately lead to an end of the fight. |
Thursday, March 9, 2023 10:12AM - 10:24AM |
S14.00010: Chimera states among synchronous fireflies Raphael Sarfati, Orit Peleg Mathematical models of coupled oscillators often exhibit a rich phase diagram. Among these phases, "chimera states" refer to the coexistence of synchronous and incoherent clusters in a population of identical oscillators. For the past two decades, they have received significant attention, notably for their apparent symmetry-breaking character. While abundant in models, chimeras have remained elusive in real-world settings. A few carefully designed experiments had produced physical chimeras, yet they had not been observed in nature. |
Thursday, March 9, 2023 10:24AM - 11:00AM |
S14.00011: Synchronization of complex human networks Invited Speaker: Moti Fridman The synchronization of human networks, and the possibility of obtaining an agreement in a group, are essential for our survival. The dynamics of human networks are affecting every aspect of our lives in politics, economics, science, and engineering, and are essential for our mental and physical health. We study the unique properties of human networks and their dynamics by resorting to coupled violin players. We found that the human ability to ignore inputs or to focus on an input change dramatically the dynamics of the network compared to other coupled networks. We show how human networks react to frustrating situations, how they change the network connectivity or the network coupling strength, and how they escape local minima. In addition, the formation of leaders has a significant impact on the dynamics of human groups and networks and can completely shift the trajectory of a society. We study how leaders are formed and the driving forces that make one a leader. We investigate ways to control who becomes the leader by tuning the external network parameters. Our results may influence numerous fields, including traffic management, epidemic control, and stock market dynamics. In the talk, I will describe our experimental setup, present the results, and discuss all the consequences of these unique dynamics. |
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