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With navigating nematodes, scientists map out how brains implement behaviors
- MIT mapped brain circuits in C. elegans showing how odors guide navigation through a defined sensorimotor sequence.
- The team tracked neural activity in over 100 neurons as worms navigated toward or away from odors.
- Tyramine, the worm’s norepinephrine analogue, coordinates the sequence to switch gears during movement.
- A key neuron, SAA, helped integrate odor detection with planning movement and predicted turn direction.
- The study reveals the sequence: forward, into reverse, then into the turn, then back to forward.
- RIM tyramine enables other neurons to change activity for turns; removing it disrupted navigation.
- The work was funded by HHMI and NIH among others and published in Nature Neuroscience.
- The research demonstrates worms are more skilled and intentional than previously thought.
- The study imaged activity in a worm brain during odor-guided decisions to savor or avoid odors.
- The MIT article is part of broader MIT News coverage on neuroscience and behavior.
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