Sequential Decision-Making in Ants and Implications to the Evidence Accumulation Decision Model

Cooperative transport of large food loads by Paratrechina longicornis ants demands repeated decision-making. Inspired the Evidence Accumulation (EA) model classically used to describe decision-making in brain, we conducted a binary choice experiment where carrying rely on social information choose between two paths. We found that carried load performs biased random walk continuously alternates options. show this motion constitutes physical realization abstract EA and exhibits an emergent version psychophysical Weber’s law. In contrast model, load’s step size is not fixed but, rather, varies with both evidence circumstances. Using theoretical modeling variable expands scope from isolated sequential decisions. hypothesize phenomenon may also be relevant neuronal circuits perform