An ant colony is like a neural network

Tam-Tri Le, Phenikaa University (Hanoi, Vietnam)

July 24, 2022

In science fiction, the appearance of extraterrestrial species with hive-mind societies makes us wonder what it would be like to think and act as a collective rather than as individuals. Similarities can be seen in the human brain’s neural network, where billions of individual neurons work together to produce thoughts and behaviors as a single organism despite having their own cellular lives. In this sense, the ants in a colony are like those sci-fi aliens who share the same mind.

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that ants make collective decisions in response to heat [1]. As the temperature rises gradually, the ants continue to carry out their current tasks as normal. However, when the heat reaches a certain threshold, the whole group drops their jobs and reacts because the decision to evacuate has been made. But “who” makes such a decision?

To check if the temperature response threshold is “hard-coded” within each ant’s body or not, the researchers examined the behavior in different group sizes. They found that a larger colony requires a higher temperature to trigger the evacuation. It is not a simple individual-level reaction of leaving when it gets too uncomfortable for oneself. Decision-making involves cost-benefit evaluation, and it is more costly to move a larger group. Thus, it takes a higher risk (in this case: heat) for a larger group to deem the evacuation behavior worth it [2].


Ants communicating, by Steve Shattuck (CC BY 3.0);
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CSIRO_ScienceImage_3225_Meat_ant_Iridomyrmex_purpureus_Formicidae.jpg

The researchers of this study suggested that the way ants process information is similar to the neural network in the brain. Information transmission occurs through pheromones among ants, having some resemblance to how neurons communicate through neurotransmitters. An ant on its own does not know about the status of the whole colony. Still, the information process created by interactions between individuals allows for the colony’s accurate decision-making.

Highly complex society-level decision-making processes are based on information exchange and evaluation [3]. While cost-benefit judgments are subjective and vary from person to person, each human individual serves as a node in the collective information processes. A single person cannot be aware of everything happening in society but still participate in the social network to some degree. Large-scale information processes can be observed more clearly in cases of globally coordinated efforts [4].

Hypothetically, suppose humanity has a collective mind (a different form of consciousness compared to individual humans). In that case, we will probably be unable to be aware of it nor imagine what it “feels” like.

References

[1] Gal A, Kronauer DJC. (2022). The emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(23), e2123076119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2123076119

[2] Fenz K. (2022, July 22). Ant Colonies Behave Like Neural Networks When Making Decisions. Neuroscience News. Available from: https://neurosciencenews.com/ants-neural-networks-21093/

[3] Vuong QH, Napier NK. (2015). Acculturation and global mindsponge: An emerging market perspective. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 49, 354–367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2015.06.003

[4] Vuong QH. (2022). A New Theory of Serendipity: Nature, Emergence and Mechanism. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter GmbH.