Self-synchronization and task fulfilment in ant colonies

Abstract

Some authors have hypothesized that the observed self-synchronized activity in ant colonies provides some adaptive advantages, and, in particular, it has been suggested that task realization may benefit from this ordered temporal pattern of behavior (Robinson, 1992; Hatcher {em et al.}, 1992). In this paper we use a model of self-synchronized activity (the Fluid Neural Network) to suggest that with self-synchronized patterns of activity a task may be fulfiled more effectively than with non-synchronized activity, at the same average level of activity per individual.