Researchers used a closed-loop biohybrid system in which robotic agents interacted dynamically with schooling fish, allowing them to probe how individuals respond to neighbours rather than merely observe naturally occurring schools.
The experiments indicate that social influence is selectively filtered according to interaction context, helping explain how local responses produce stable collective motion without centralized control. The approach also provides an unusually direct experimental method for manipulating information flow inside an animal collective.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.03.742553v1
