scholarly journals Dynamics of pattern formation and emergence of swarming in Caenorhabditis elegans

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esin Demir ◽  
Y Ilker Yaman ◽  
Mustafa Basaran ◽  
Askin Kocabas

Many animals collectively form complex patterns to tackle environmental difficulties. Several biological and physical factors, such as animal motility, population densities, and chemical cues, play significant roles in this process. However, very little is known about how sensory information interplays with these factors and controls the dynamics of pattern formation. Here, we study the direct relation between oxygen sensing, pattern formation, and emergence of swarming in active Caenorhabditis elegans aggregates. We find that when thousands of animals gather on food, bacteria-mediated decrease in oxygen level slows down the animals and triggers motility-induced phase separation. Three coupled factors—bacterial accumulation, aerotaxis, and population density—act together and control the entire dynamics. Furthermore, we find that biofilm-forming bacterial lawns including Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strongly alter the collective dynamics due to the limited diffusibility of bacteria. Additionally, our theoretical model captures behavioral differences resulting from genetic variations and oxygen sensitivity.

The control of movement is essential for animals traversing complex environments and operating across a range of speeds and gaits. We consider how animals process sensory information and initiate motor responses, primarily focusing on simple motor responses that involve local reflex pathways of feedback and control, rather than the more complex, longer-term responses that require the broader integration of higher centers within the nervous system. We explore how local circuits facilitate decentralized coordination of locomotor rhythm and examine the fundamentals of sensory receptors located in the muscles, tendons, joints, and at the animal’s body surface. These sensors monitor the animal’s physical environment and the action of its muscles. The sensory information is then carried back to the animal’s nervous system by afferent neurons, providing feedback that is integrated at the level of the spinal cord of vertebrates and sensory-motor ganglia of invertebrates.


eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah G Leinwand ◽  
Claire J Yang ◽  
Daphne Bazopoulou ◽  
Nikos Chronis ◽  
Jagan Srinivasan ◽  
...  

Chemosensory neurons extract information about chemical cues from the environment. How is the activity in these sensory neurons transformed into behavior? Using Caenorhabditis elegans, we map a novel sensory neuron circuit motif that encodes odor concentration. Primary neurons, AWCON and AWA, directly detect the food odor benzaldehyde (BZ) and release insulin-like peptides and acetylcholine, respectively, which are required for odor-evoked responses in secondary neurons, ASEL and AWB. Consistently, both primary and secondary neurons are required for BZ attraction. Unexpectedly, this combinatorial code is altered in aged animals: odor-evoked activity in secondary, but not primary, olfactory neurons is reduced. Moreover, experimental manipulations increasing neurotransmission from primary neurons rescues aging-associated neuronal deficits. Finally, we correlate the odor responsiveness of aged animals with their lifespan. Together, these results show how odors are encoded by primary and secondary neurons and suggest reduced neurotransmission as a novel mechanism driving aging-associated sensory neural activity and behavioral declines.


2018 ◽  
Vol 226 ◽  
pp. 02015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ksenia I. Goryanina ◽  
Aleksndr D. Lukyanov ◽  
Oleg I. Katin

One of the main elements of automation of industrial enterprises is the use of robotic systems consisting of mechanical manipulators and control systems. In recent years, the market of service robotics has been actively developing. The main part of the market of professional service robots in value terms is occupied by medical devices. Agriculture and logistics are also actively developing areas. The success of the automation systems implementation depends on the solution of complex scientific and technical problems, primarily in the following areas: machine vision; sensor networks; navigation systems. Thus, one of the fundamental problems, the solution of which largely depends on the success in creating the perfect adaptive and intelligent robots, is the use of such types of sensors of sensory information, which allow obtaining a sufficiently large amount of information about the problem environment in a short time. This is a problem of creating means of perception.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Xing ◽  
Lang Li ◽  
Changchun Zhou ◽  
Cheng Long ◽  
Lina Wu ◽  
...  

It is well known that stem cells reside within tissue engineering functional microenvironments that physically localize them and direct their stem cell fate. Recent efforts in the development of more complex and engineered scaffold technologies, together with new understanding of stem cell behavior in vitro, have provided a new impetus to study regulation and directing stem cell fate. A variety of tissue engineering technologies have been developed to regulate the fate of stem cells. Traditional methods to change the fate of stem cells are adding growth factors or some signaling pathways. In recent years, many studies have revealed that the geometrical microenvironment played an essential role in regulating the fate of stem cells, and the physical factors of scaffolds including mechanical properties, pore sizes, porosity, surface stiffness, three-dimensional structures, and mechanical stimulation may affect the fate of stem cells. Chemical factors such as cell-adhesive ligands and exogenous growth factors would also regulate the fate of stem cells. Understanding how these physical and chemical cues affect the fate of stem cells is essential for building more complex and controlled scaffolds for directing stem cell fate.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 24-28
Author(s):  
Paula Brown

Paula Brown takes a look at the theory underpinning how children process sensory information and provides practical tips on helping them integrate their experiences and control their responses.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 84-84
Author(s):  
S.J. Mosavi Amiri

Introduction & objectivesFor better understanding of the effective factors in tendency to addiction, the research aimed to survey this question what is the first cause of addiction? Psychological, Environmental or Physical causes.Method80 addicted people were randomly selected and Abuse Drug Assessment Inventory (ADAI) was administered on them. Chi Square formula was used to analyze the results.ResultsFindings showed 55 percent of tendency to addiction was psychological. Also more analyzing showed 65 percent of continuing causes of addiction were psychological factors such as fear, anxiety, sorrow.ConclusionIn regard to results we should put more emphasis on psychological prevention and treatment methods so that both tendency to addiction and continuing causes of addiction decrease and control.


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