STATISTICAL MOVEMENTS. “These initiation sites (“hypotheses”) are widespread throughout the damaged mound, and as repair progresses, these compete with one another for workers to “sustain” the hypothesis. In the end, the “winning” hypothesis will be the sites that can recruit enough workers to drive repair building most rapidly to the formation of a plug that blocks the passage. “Correctly” interpreting the distorted AC perturbation field in the damaged mound turns, therefore, on ensuring that plug formation takes place at the focal point of the distorted AC perturbation field.”
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12304-016-9256-5