ArticlePloS one2015
Diffusion and topological neighbours in flocks of starlings: relating a model to empirical data.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- A mechanistic understanding of collective escape in starling flocks.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Low-distortion information propagation with noise suppression in swarm networks.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Starling-Behavior-Inspired Flocking Control of Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Swarm in Complex Environments with Dynamic Obstacles.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Emergence of splits and collective turns in pigeon flocks under predation.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Self-organization of collective escape in pigeon flocks.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Complex patterns of collective escape in starling flocks under predation.Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · 2019Article
- Article
- Entangled time in flocking: Multi-time-scale interaction reveals emergence of inherent noise.PloS one · 2018Article
- Three-dimensional trajectories and network analyses of group behaviour within chimney swift flocks during approaches to the roost.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Birds of a feather flock together: Insights into starling murmuration behaviour revealed using citizen science.PloS one · 2017Article
- Article
- The confusion effect when attacking simulated three-dimensional starling flocks.Royal Society open science · 2017Article
- Evolution of Collective Behaviour in an Artificial World Using Linguistic Fuzzy Rule-Based Systems.PloS one · 2017Article
- Both Nearest Neighbours and Long-term Affiliates Predict Individual Locations During Collective Movement in Wild Baboons.Scientific reports · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Moving in a group while avoiding collisions with group members causes internal dynamics in the group. Although these dynamics have recently been measured quantitatively in starling flocks (Sturnus vulgaris), it is unknown what causes them. Computational models have shown that collective motion in groups is likely due to attraction, avoidance and, possibly, alignment among group members. Empirical studies show that starlings adjust their movement to a fixed number of closest neighbours or topological range, namely 6 or 7 and assume that each of the three activities is done with the same number of neighbours (topological range). Here, we start from the hypothesis that escape behavior is more effective at preventing collisions in a flock when avoiding the single closest neighbor than compromising by avoiding 6 or 7 of them. For alignment and attraction, we keep to the empirical topological range. We investigate how avoiding one or several neighbours affects the internal dynamics of flocks of starlings in our computational model StarDisplay. By comparing to empirical data, we confirm that internal dynamics resemble empirical data more closely if flock members avoid merely their single, closest neighbor. Our model shows that considering a different number of interaction partners per activity represents a useful perspective and that changing a single parameter, namely the number of interaction partners that are avoided, has several effects through selforganisation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.