Joel Levine, a professor of biology at U of T Mississauga, and Takao Hensch, professor at Harvard University and the University of Tokyo, will lead one of six projects supported by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. The researchers hold senior positions with CIFARs child and brain development program, where Hensch is program director and Levine is a senior research fellow.
The duo will draw upon their ongoing work with fruit flies and mice to develop new computational modelling software. The tool will aid in the analysis of data sources, such as videos, to reveal patterns of behaviour in human social interactions, and provide insights into the developmental and neural basis of social structures.
Levine, who studies the link between genetics and fruit fly behaviour, says we can see patterns of behaviour in all corners of the animal kingdom, including flies, ants and bees.
https://www.utoronto.ca/news/researchers-u-t-harvard-study-collective-human-behaviour-amid-covid-19