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Connecting empirical phenomena and theoretical models of biological coordination across scales.

ABSTRACT: Coordination in living systems-from cells to people-must be understood at multiple levels of description. Analyses and modelling of empirically observed patterns of biological coordination often focus either on ensemble-level statistics in large-scale systems with many components, or on detailed dynamics in small-scale systems with few components. The two approaches have proceeded largely independent of each other. To bridge this gap between levels and scales, we have recently conducted a human experiment of mid-scale social coordination specifically designed to reveal coordination at multiple levels (ensemble, subgroups and dyads) simultaneously. Based on this experiment, the present work shows that, surprisingly, a single system of equations captures key observations at all relevant levels. It also connects empirically validated models of large- and small-scale biological coordination-the Kuramoto and extended Haken-Kelso-Bunz (HKB) models-and the hallmark phenomena that each is known to capture. For example, it exhibits both multistability and metastability observed in small-scale empirical research (via the second-order coupling and symmetry breaking in extended HKB) and the growth of biological complexity as a function of scale (via the scalability of the Kuramoto model). Only by incorporating both of these features simultaneously can we reproduce the essential coordination behaviour observed in our experiment.

SUBMITTER: Zhang M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6731488 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Connecting empirical phenomena and theoretical models of biological coordination across scales.

Zhang Mengsen M Beetle Christopher C Kelso J A Scott JAS Tognoli Emmanuelle E

Journal of the Royal Society, Interface 20190814 157

Coordination in living systems-from cells to people-must be understood at multiple levels of description. Analyses and modelling of empirically observed patterns of biological coordination often focus either on ensemble-level statistics in large-scale systems with many components, or on detailed dynamics in small-scale systems with few components. The two approaches have proceeded largely independent of each other. To bridge this gap between levels and scales, we have recently conducted a human ...[more]

PMID: 31409241

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Dataset Information

Connecting empirical phenomena and theoretical models of biological coordination across scales.

Publications

Connecting empirical phenomena and theoretical models of biological coordination across scales.

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