The Physics of Fish Fights: How You Win and Lose
Pairwise animal conflicts occur throughout the animal kingdom to determine dominance. However, quantitatively, we know little about how these evolved, stereotypical interactions are used to establish a winner and a loser. Physicist Liam O'Shaughnessy analyzed the social behavior of fish during pairwise animal fights using a new imaging system, AI tools, and methods from physics.
O'Shaughnessy concluded that losing fish often become more aggressive before the end of a fight, suggesting that existing theoretical models of animal contests need revision. His research made progress in three areas: the development of improved software tools for behavioral research, theoretical representations of social systems, and a detailed analysis of the dynamics of zebrafish fights in 3D.
O'Shaughnessy's work contributes to the development of a quantitative framework for understanding the dynamics of social interactions, much like frameworks that exist for the movement of stars in the sky or electricity in our networks. The ability to study social behavior quantitatively will aid in developing treatments for social deficits such as autism. The research is significant for geneticists and neuroscientists who use behavior to understand the output of the brain and genes, both in organisms like zebrafish and in humans.
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