Herds of bees are ready to suppress opponents aggressively

How do flock animals reach consensus in decisions? The first experiments show that the mechanism to accept decisions is complex and not the majority always prevails.

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Newspaper Правда.Ру has told about the behavior and way of living in the fish that live in the herd, in which 'opinion' of a stubborn minority is sometimes a decisive opinion. The scientists are close to agreeing that the basic principles for forming a collective organization are very similar from bacteria to mammals. But when studying the characteristics of the behavior of insects and fish, people find there are more remarkable and recognizable things, there are laws similar to . human society.

Moreover, the researchers also found a similar strategy for selecting solutions in the herd and the mechanism for accepting decisions and demonstrations in the neural network of the brain. This means that at the time of selection, a group of organized individuals of a species acts as a collective and unique intelligence.

However, sometimes even in a brain there are conflicts - common in humans also occur in animals. But because the decisions that have been agreed need to be followed and maintained, some 'unanimous' people will be forced to remain silent.

Once decided, bees are ready to suppress opponents.

Take examples of honey bees. When an 'original' beehive is too crowded, inconvenient for the whole herd activity, bees are forced to carry out a 'big' task of dividing the herd. New nests, from a detached 'original beehive' , are the basis of a new family, consisting of several thousand individuals (worker bees). Some of the oldest, most experienced and 'reputable' bees (similar to the 'elders' in human society) were chosen to be 'scouting bees' . They have a mission to fly everywhere to find a suitable place to create a new place. The whole group waited for them, after withdrawing from the old nest and temporarily settling right next to them.

When discovered around an appropriate location, reconnaissance bees return to their homosexuals in shelter, and through special dances, they inform workers of the location of the future. Knowing that the search was successful, other reconnaissance bees will probably visit the place that the first bee indicated. If they agree with this choice, they will dance according to the dance of the whole herd.

But in the case where there are some positions where every position has a group of reconnaissance bees, it is a problem. At that time, it was impossible to divide the herd anymore because normally there was only one queen. All beekeepers know that after leaving the 'original' nest, there is a new god, the bees must not return to the old nest anymore and will not be further divided because it will weaken the population.

Therefore, due to the interests of all groups, it is imperative to accept the solution as quickly as possible. Scientists observe that reconnaissance bees will have a way . to make those who have other ideas have to remain silent. Biologists all know that reconnaissance bees have special signals called 'stop signals' (called 'stop-signal' ), to catch 'colleagues' - ie virgins. another watch - stop dancing. (Dancing is the language of bees and bee experts have deciphered the meaning of these dances.) Normally, bees use only those signals in case they find other reconnaissance bees controlling worker bees to extract bile in dangerous areas.

In order to achieve the unity of the whole herd, the first reconnaissance bees "rolled" aggressively into the opponents, darting like a bullet into the ones dancing with the other dance ( even expressing his inconsistency) was then fluttering at a frequency of about 350Hz in 150-200 milliseconds, emitting very characteristic buzzing sounds, while reconnaissance bees agreed with the new location. still constantly emitting 'stop-signal' . The aggressive action of the first group of beekeepers has not forced the protesters to stop the dance, until the 'stop-signal' is buzzing against the 'opposition'.

American biologists have conducted experiments, confirming one thing: the reconnaissance bee is responsible for selecting the location for the whole population when informing each other to use the same signals as 'stop-signal' , but only use these signals in the final stages of choice. At the time of agreeing on decisions, reconnaissance bees use 'stop-signal' as a last resort to force opponents (ie bees disagree with this decision and still keep their own opinions. ) must be 'shut up'.

In order for the entire hive to come up with a unified solution and make a quick move to build the nest, the intensity of the stop-signal dances is enhanced gradually to a certain extent, drowning out the 'lost other 'loose' or turned off due to attack. It determines by special signals that have a very high frequency of reconnaissance bees. These signals can be interpreted as : 'This place has been decided and must be followed. Let's wave your wings for heat up and fly. ' When there is only stop-signal, it means that the search and cheering for each other has ended, so as not to get lost, go to the chosen place together.

What is most noticeable is the behavior of bees going to build nests in those cases that are in a strange way the activity of neurons in the brain. The group of neurons responsible for the operation plan sends each other blocking signals. This mechanism is called interception (recirpocal prevention). A classic example of ' reciprocal blocking' for any vertebrate is to prevent muscle-antagonist. In bees, special neurons that are responsible for inhibiting the execution of any "opposition" bees have actions that cause trouble in the population.

For example, when activating the muscles - fold, the neurons simultaneously send signals that block the motor neurons (motoneurone) of the muscle - stretching on the same limb. According to the authors of the study, the similarity of functional bodies of the two hemispheres and the collection of living animals promotes evolution: both systems are constructed. to quickly accept effective decisions.