Schooling fish mainly react to one or two neighbours at a time

New research has shown schooling fish constantly change who they decide to pay attention to and respond to one or two neighbours at a time. The study, published in PLOS Computational Biology, developed a new method combining behavioural analyses with a computer model to map the chain of direct interactions in a school of fish. The international research team, that includes the University of Bristol, found individual fish pay attention to its neighbours when the school moves together. Schooling fish exhibit remarkable group-level co-ordination where many individuals move together seamlessly. This is because individuals in the group respond to the movement of other group members. However, it is not known how many individuals each fish pay attention to. Understanding how an individual fish works together with its neighbors is important because these interactions reveal how the school as a group move and explore the environment and could help identify how directional information spreads across a group.