Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Bionic Functional Materials, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, P. R. China.
Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Biosensors, Biology Institute, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan, 250103, P. R. China.
J Integr Neurosci. 2020 Sep 30;19(3):443-448. doi: 10.31083/j.jin.2020.03.159.
Birds flying collectively is a fascinating phenomenon in nature, which is central in ethological studies. Owing to the difficulty of introducing controlled variables into a natural bird flock, current animal behavior paradigms limit our understanding of collective behavior and mechanism. The recently developed technology of robo-pigeon, which allows behavior regulation over organisms through brain microstimulation, can potentially serve to design the controlled variables. However, it still poses challenges for unrestrained animals outdoors. Here we report the first application of robo-pigeon to the study of collective behavior, illustrating how intact pigeons in a flock interact with a program-controlled robo-pigeon. The controlled variable of direction manipulation introduced by the robo-pigeon may balance their preferred directional choice in the flock. Its effectivity depends on the hierarchical level to which the robo-pigeon belongs. This study suggests that direct manipulation of flight trajectories by a robo-pigeon might be a useful causal tool to study the collective behavior of bird flocks.
鸟类集体飞行是自然界中一种引人入胜的现象，也是动物行为学研究的核心内容。由于难以在自然鸟类群体中引入控制变量，当前的动物行为范式限制了我们对集体行为和机制的理解。最近开发的机器鸽子技术通过脑微刺激来调节生物体的行为，这可能有助于设计控制变量。然而，它仍然对户外不受约束的动物构成挑战。在这里，我们报告了机器鸽子在集体行为研究中的首次应用，展示了成群的鸽子如何与程控机器鸽子相互作用。机器鸽子引入的方向操纵控制变量可能会平衡它们在群体中对偏好方向的选择。其有效性取决于机器鸽子所属的层级。本研究表明，通过机器鸽子直接操纵飞行轨迹可能是研究鸟类群体集体行为的一种有用的因果工具。
