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The Journal of Neuroscience, July 11, 2007, 27(28):7586-7596; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0775-07.2007

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Neural Circuits Mediate Electrosensory Behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans

Christopher V. Gabel,¹ Harrison Gabel,^2,3 Dmitri Pavlichin,¹ Albert Kao,¹ Damon A. Clark,¹ and Aravinthan D. T. Samuel¹

¹Department of Physics and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, ²Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, and ³Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Aravinthan D. T. Samuel, Department of Physics and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Email: samuel{at}physics.harvard.edu

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans deliberately crawls toward the negative pole in an electric field. By quantifying the movements of individual worms navigating electric fields, we show that C. elegans prefers to crawl at specific angles to the direction of the electric field in persistent periods of forward movement and that the preferred angle is proportional to field strength. C. elegans reorients itself in response to time-varying electric fields by using sudden turns and reversals, standard reorientation maneuvers that C. elegans uses during other modes of motile behavior. Mutation or laser ablation that disrupts the structure and function of amphid sensory neurons also disrupts electrosensory behavior. By imaging intracellular calcium dynamics among the amphid sensory neurons of immobilized worms, we show that specific amphid sensory neurons are sensitive to the direction and strength of electric fields. We extend our analysis to the motor level by showing that specific interneurons affect the utilization of sudden turns and reversals during electrosensory steering. Thus, electrosensory behavior may be used as a model system for understanding how sensory inputs are transformed into motor outputs by the C. elegans nervous system.

Key words: C. elegans; electrical stimulation; motor control; movement (motion; motor activity); navigation; sensorimotor

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Received Feb. 20, 2007; revised June 4, 2007; accepted June 4, 2007.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Aravinthan D. T. Samuel, Department of Physics and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Email: samuel{at}physics.harvard.edu

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