I think you are fighting a metaphor with another metaphor. Saying that ants form a society indeed implies assigning them human characteristics (anthropomorphism

I think you are fighting a metaphor with another metaphor. Saying that ants form a society indeed implies assigning them human characteristics (anthropomorphism) but saying that they are neurons basically suggests that there are common models to represent an ant colony as well as a neural system. Frankly, I am not sure that the latter approach is more helpful.