This study uses a conditioned escape response to follow how information propagates through schooling fish after selected individuals respond to a threat cue.
By identifying where responses originate and how subsequent reactions spread through neighbours, the experiments provide a way to distinguish individual detection from socially transmitted information. The resulting framework is intended to reveal the behavioural interaction rules that turn local reactions into rapid collective escape dynamics.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.04.742699v1
