A model grounded in observations of ant colonies suggests that synchronized bursts of activity can begin with a single active worker.
Ants cycle among inactive, active and temporarily refractory states, while moving workers continually form new local connections. Above a critical interaction regime, one first mover can activate neighbours that activate others, creating a rapid colony-wide cascade. The model indicates that synchronization depends on information spreading through the moving interaction network faster than the duration of the activity burst itself.
https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ant-trigger-colony-wide-mathematical.html
