Self-synchronization and task fulfilment in ant colonies.

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 behaviour (Robinson, 1992, Ann. Rev. Entomol, 37, 637-702; Hatcher et al., 1992, Naturwissenschaften, 79, 32-34). 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. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.