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[video] Aesthetics of complexity in groups

  Revealing the hidden networks of interaction in mobile animal groups allows prediction of complex... Revealing the hidden networks of interaction in mobile animal groups allows prediction of complex behavioral contagion. Sara Brin Rosenthal et al (2015),  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  Coordination among social animals requires rapid and efficient transfer of information among individuals, which may depend crucially on the underlying structure of the communication network. Establishing the decision-making circuits and networks that give rise to individual behavior has been a central goal of neuroscience. However, the analogous problem of determining the structure of the communication network among organisms that gives rise to coordinated collective behavior, such as is exhibited by schooling fish and flocking birds, has remained almost entirely neglected. Here, we study collective evasion maneuvers, manifested through rapid waves, or cascades, of behavioral change (