Theoretical physics predicts optimal information processing in living systems near transitions (or pseudo-critical points) in their collective dynamics. However, focusing on potential benefits of proximity to a critical point, such as maximal sensitivity to perturbations and fast dissemination of information, commonly disregards possible costs of criticality in the noisy, dynamic environmental contexts of biological systems. Here, we find that startle cascades in fish schools are subcritical (not maximally responsive to environmental cues) and that distance to criticality decreases when perceived risk increases. Considering individuals’ costs related to two detection error types, associated to both true and false alarms, we argue that being subcritical, and modulating distance to criticality, can be understood as managing a trade-off between sensitivity and robustness according to the riskiness and noisiness of the environment. Our work emphasizes the need for an individual-based and context-dependent perspective on criticality and collective information processing and motivates future questions about the evolutionary forces that brought about a particular trade-off.

中文翻译：

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鱼群中的亚临界逃逸波

理论物理学预测生命系统在其集体动力学中的过渡（或伪临界点）附近的最佳信息处理。然而，关注接近临界点的潜在好处，例如对扰动的最大敏感度和信息的快速传播，通常会忽略在生物系统嘈杂、动态的环境环境中临界点的可能成本。在这里，我们发现鱼群中的惊吓级联是亚临界的（对环境线索没有最大响应），并且当感知风险增加时，与临界的距离会减小。考虑到与真警报和假警报相关的两种检测错误类型相关的个人成本，我们认为是亚临界的，并调节到临界的距离，可以理解为根据环境的风险性和噪声性在敏感性和稳健性之间进行权衡。我们的工作强调了对关键性和集体信息处理的基于个体和上下文相关的观点的必要性，并激发了关于导致特定权衡的进化力量的未来问题。