Department of Physics, Seattle University, Seattle, WA, 98122, USA.
Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 May 29;14(1):12296. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-63245-y.
Living objects are able to consume chemical energy and process information independently from others. However, living objects can coordinate to form ordered groups such as schools of fish. This work considers these complex groups as living materials and presents imaging-based experiments of laboratory schools of fish to understand how activity, which is a non-equilibrium feature, affects the structure and dynamics of a group. We use spatial confinement to control the motion and structure of fish within quasi-2D shoals of fish and use image analysis techniques to make quantitative observations of the structures, their spatial heterogeneity, and their temporal fluctuations. Furthermore, we utilize Monte Carlo simulations to replicate the experimentally observed data which provides insight into the effective interactions between fish and confirms the presence of a confinement-based behavioral preference transition. In addition, unlike in short-range interacting systems, here structural heterogeneity and dynamic activities are positively correlated as a result of complex interplay between spatial arrangement and behavioral dynamics in fish collectives.
生物体能独立地消耗化学能量和处理信息。然而，生物体能协调形成有序的群体，如鱼群。这项工作将这些复杂的群体视为生物材料，并进行了基于成像的实验室鱼群实验，以了解非平衡特征——活动如何影响群体的结构和动态。我们使用空间限制来控制准二维鱼群中鱼的运动和结构，并使用图像分析技术对结构、空间异质性及其时间波动进行定量观察。此外，我们利用蒙特卡罗模拟复制实验观察到的数据，这为了解鱼之间的有效相互作用提供了线索，并证实了基于限制的行为偏好转变的存在。此外，与短程相互作用系统不同，由于鱼群中空间排列和行为动态之间的复杂相互作用，结构异质性和动态活动呈正相关。
