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Collective decision-making in biological groups requires all individuals in the group to go through a behavioral change of state. Sometimes these changes are triggered by external perturbations, as in evasive maneuvers of animal groups under predatory attacks. Often, however, they occur spontaneously and are only due to internal behavioral fluctuations. In all cases, the efficiency of information transport is a key factor to prevent cohesion loss and preserve collective robustness. In this talk, I will present an experimental and theoretical study of collective decision making in animal groups. Starting from experimental data on collective turns in starling flocks, I will discuss what is the mechanism that triggers a collective change (a turn) and grants efficient and fast information propagation through the system. I will show how the presence of a behavioral inertia and the related conservation law are responsible for the fast, linear dispersion relation observed in the transport of directional changes in natural flocks. Finally, I will discuss the role of heterogeneities, network unbalance, and boundary effects in initiating a collective change of state.
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