Spatial Structure and Information Transfer in Visual Networks
In human and animal groups, social interactions often rely on the transmission of information via visual observation of the behavior of others. These visual interactions are governed by the laws of physics and sensory limits. Individuals appear smaller when far away and thus become harder to detect...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Physics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2021.716576/full |
| _version_ | 1818580536243781632 |
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| author | Winnie Poel Winnie Poel Claudia Winklmayr Claudia Winklmayr Pawel Romanczuk Pawel Romanczuk |
| author_facet | Winnie Poel Winnie Poel Claudia Winklmayr Claudia Winklmayr Pawel Romanczuk Pawel Romanczuk |
| author_sort | Winnie Poel |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In human and animal groups, social interactions often rely on the transmission of information via visual observation of the behavior of others. These visual interactions are governed by the laws of physics and sensory limits. Individuals appear smaller when far away and thus become harder to detect visually, while close by neighbors tend to occlude large areas of the visual field and block out interactions with individuals behind them. Here, we systematically study the effect of a group’s spatial structure, its density as well as polarization and aspect ratio of the physical bodies, on the properties of static visual interaction networks. In such a network individuals are connected if they can see each other as opposed to other interaction models such as metric or topological networks that omit these limitations due to the individual’s physical bodies. We find that structural parameters of the visual networks and especially their dependence on spatial group density are fundamentally different from the two other types. This results in characteristic deviations in information spreading which we study via the dynamics of two generic SIR-type models of social contagion on static visual and metric networks. We expect our work to have implications for the study of animal groups, where it could inform the study of functional benefits of different macroscopic states. It may also be applicable to the construction of robotic swarms communicating via vision or for understanding the spread of panics in human crowds. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T07:19:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e7b090f375f44ff7be5d394ec9c36722 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-424X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T07:19:09Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Physics |
| spelling | doaj.art-e7b090f375f44ff7be5d394ec9c367222022-12-21T22:39:43ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Physics2296-424X2021-10-01910.3389/fphy.2021.716576716576Spatial Structure and Information Transfer in Visual NetworksWinnie Poel0Winnie Poel1Claudia Winklmayr2Claudia Winklmayr3Pawel Romanczuk4Pawel Romanczuk5Department of Biology, Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, GermanyBernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Berlin, GermanyDepartment of Biology, Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, GermanyBernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Berlin, GermanyDepartment of Biology, Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, GermanyBernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Berlin, GermanyIn human and animal groups, social interactions often rely on the transmission of information via visual observation of the behavior of others. These visual interactions are governed by the laws of physics and sensory limits. Individuals appear smaller when far away and thus become harder to detect visually, while close by neighbors tend to occlude large areas of the visual field and block out interactions with individuals behind them. Here, we systematically study the effect of a group’s spatial structure, its density as well as polarization and aspect ratio of the physical bodies, on the properties of static visual interaction networks. In such a network individuals are connected if they can see each other as opposed to other interaction models such as metric or topological networks that omit these limitations due to the individual’s physical bodies. We find that structural parameters of the visual networks and especially their dependence on spatial group density are fundamentally different from the two other types. This results in characteristic deviations in information spreading which we study via the dynamics of two generic SIR-type models of social contagion on static visual and metric networks. We expect our work to have implications for the study of animal groups, where it could inform the study of functional benefits of different macroscopic states. It may also be applicable to the construction of robotic swarms communicating via vision or for understanding the spread of panics in human crowds.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2021.716576/fullspatial networkscollective behaviorsocial contagioncomplex systemsvisual interactionsnetwork topology |
| spellingShingle | Winnie Poel Winnie Poel Claudia Winklmayr Claudia Winklmayr Pawel Romanczuk Pawel Romanczuk Spatial Structure and Information Transfer in Visual Networks Frontiers in Physics spatial networks collective behavior social contagion complex systems visual interactions network topology |
| title | Spatial Structure and Information Transfer in Visual Networks |
| title_full | Spatial Structure and Information Transfer in Visual Networks |
| title_fullStr | Spatial Structure and Information Transfer in Visual Networks |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spatial Structure and Information Transfer in Visual Networks |
| title_short | Spatial Structure and Information Transfer in Visual Networks |
| title_sort | spatial structure and information transfer in visual networks |
| topic | spatial networks collective behavior social contagion complex systems visual interactions network topology |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2021.716576/full |
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