{"id":390039,"date":"2026-04-13T16:09:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/390039\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:09:06","slug":"neural-mechanism-underlying-sensory-behavior-revealed-in-c-elegans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/390039\/","title":{"rendered":"Neural Mechanism Underlying Sensory Behavior Revealed in C. elegans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Neurons\"<\/a>Neurons [Evgenii Kovalev
\n\/ E+\/ Getty Images]<\/p>\n

Animal behavior reflects a complex interplay between an animal\u2019s brain and its sensory surroundings.\u00a0In a\u00a0new study\u00a0published in\u00a0Nature Neuroscience titled, \u201cNeural sequences underlying directed turning in Caenorhabditis\u00a0elegans<\/a>,\u201d researchers from\u00a0Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have shown how neuron circuits within C. elegans\u00a0nematode worms respond to odors and generate movement as they pursue\u00a0favorable versus unfavorable smells. The results inform\u00a0understanding of the basic principles of the sensory nervous system for therapeutic applications.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross the animal kingdom, there are just so many remarkable behaviors,\u201d said Steven Flavell, PhD, associate professor at the Picower Institute at MIT, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, and corresponding author of the study. \u201cWith modern neuroscience tools, we are finally gaining the ability to map their mechanistic underpinnings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether moving toward a food source or away from a predator, animals must integrate sensory stimuli to navigate to favorable locations. The neural circuits for navigation are tasked with generating directed movement while simultaneously integrating sensory input to update behavior. Understanding how neural circuits select, execute and adapt sensory-guided navigation behaviors uncovers basic principles of how nervous systems are organized to integrate sensory information and control behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In C. elegans, the authors identified error-correcting turns during navigation and used whole-brain calcium imaging and cell-specific perturbations to determine their neural underpinnings. Defined neurons activated in a stereotyped order during each turn. Distinct neurons in this sequence respond to the spatial distribution of attractive and aversive olfactory cues, anticipate upcoming turn directions and drive movement, linking key features of this sensorimotor behavior across time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that really excited us about this study is that we were able to see what a sensorimotor arc looks like at the scale of a whole nervous system: all the bits and pieces, from responses to the sensory cue until the behavioral response is implemented,\u201d Flavell said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The electrical activity of more than 100 neurons\u00a0was tracked during sensory movement. Notably, C. elegans only have\u00a0302\u00a0neurons\u00a0total.\u00a0Instead of random movements, the worms executed\u00a0turns\u00a0with\u00a0advantageous\u00a0timing and at well-chosen angles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The activity of SAA neurons was crucial for integrating odor detection with planned movement and\u00a0predicted\u00a0the direction of upcoming turns.\u00a0Several neurons showed different activity patterns depending on the location of\u00a0odors were\u00a0and whether the worm was moving forward or in reverse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, the neuromodulator, tyramine, was essential for turning and shifting gears. When the worms moved in reverse, tyramine from the neuron RIM enabled other neurons in the sequence to change their activity appropriately to execute the turns. In several experiments, the scientists knocked out RIM tyramine, which disrupted the navigation behaviors and the sequence of neural activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neurons [Evgenii Kovalev \/ E+\/ Getty Images] Animal behavior reflects a complex interplay between an animal\u2019s brain and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[185831,30951,85,46,185832,71590,43,141,3171,8351],"class_list":{"0":"post-390039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-behavioral-genetics","9":"tag-caenorhabditis-elegans","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-nematodes","13":"tag-neural-network","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-topics","17":"tag-translational-medicine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}