Michel-Olivier Laurent, PhD

My PhD research was focused on collective phenomena, in particular collective fleeing behaviours. The biological model I used to study these phenomena was the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana), a nocturnal and gregarious cockroach that aggregates in dark places during the day. Using a change in luminosity to trigger the fleeing behaviour of a group of resting cockroaches my studies can be roughly divided into two categories:

 

1) The study of short-term fleeing events.  I studied how different parameters, especially group size, influenced the collective fleeing behaviour.

 

2) The study of long-term disturbances and their influence on the aggregation and on the collective fleeing of groups of cockroaches.

 

In particular my aim was to study the inhibition and facilitation effects of group size on the fleeing behaviour, the resilience of groups of cockroaches when confronted with repeated disturbances on the long-term, and the presence of individual and group idiosyncrasies and how they were related.