Information structure of heterogeneous criticality in a fish school.
Scientific reports November 30, 2024 Takayuki Niizato, Kotaro Sakamoto, Yoh-Ichi Mototake et al. 9 citations
Integrated information theory (IIT), which measures consciousness via information integration, can be applied to non-biological systems. In schooling fish (Plecoglossus altivelis), group integrity (Φ) was highest at the critical state. Multiple levels of criticality existed as distinct subgroups within the school, and these fragmented critical subgroups coexisted with the group's overall criticality. The distribution of high-criticality subgroups was uneven across time and space. Fish in high-criticality subgroups were less affected by internal and external stimuli than those in low-criticality subgroups. These results align with prior interpretations of critical phenomena and provide a new view of empirical critical-state dynamics.