Noise-induced collective memory in schooling fish

Abstract Schooling fish often self-organize into a variety of collective patterns, from polarized schooling to rotational milling. Mathematical models support the emergence of these large-scale patterns from local decentralized interactions, in the absence of individual memory and group leadership. In a popular model where individual fish interact locally following rules of avoidance, alignment, and attraction, the group exhibits collective memory: changes in individual behavior lead to emergent patterns that depend on the group’s past configurations. However, the mechanisms driving this collective memory remain obscure. Here, we combine numerical simulations with tools from bifurcation theory to uncover that the transition from milling to schooling in this model is driven by a noisy transcritical bifurcation where the two collective states intersect and exchange stability. We further show that key features of the group dynamics—the bifurcation character, transient milling, and collective memory—can be captured by a phenomenological model of the group polarization. Our findings demonstrate that collective memory arises from a noisy bifurcation rather than from structural bistability, thus resolving a long-standing ambiguity about its origins and contributing fundamental understanding to collective phase transitions in a prevalent model of fish schooling.