A new study suggests that ants as a group behave like networks of neurons in a brain.
Image by Motab Bin Buty, via CC
"Temperatures are rising, and one colony of ants will soon have to make a collective decision. Each ant feels the rising heat beneath its feet but carries along as usual until, suddenly, the ants reverse course. The whole group rushes out as one—a decision to evacuate has been made. It is almost as if the colony of ants has a greater, collective mind.
"Daniel Kronauer, head of the Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior at Rockefeller University, and postdoctoral associate Asaf Gal developed a new experimental setup to meticulously analyze decision-making in ant colonies.
"As reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they found that when a colony evacuates due to rising temperatures, its decision is a function of both the magnitude of the heat increase and the size of the ant group.
"The findings suggest that ants combine sensory information with the parameters of their group to arrive at a group response—a process similar to neural computations giving rise to decisions." - Katherine Fenz-Rockefeller
Article: Ant Colonies Work Like Brains When Making Decisions.