{"id":2522,"date":"2014-12-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vermont.salk.edu\/news-release\/worms-mental-gps-helps-them-find-food\/"},"modified":"2014-12-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T08:00:00","slug":"worms-mental-gps-helps-them-find-food","status":"publish","type":"disclosure","link":"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/de\/news-release\/worms-mental-gps-helps-them-find-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Worms’ mental GPS helps them find food"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nLA JOLLA\u2013You\u2019ve misplaced your cell phone. You start by scanning where you remember leaving it: on your bureau. You check and double-check the bureau before expanding your search around and below the bureau. Eventually, you switch from this local area to a more global one, widening your search to the rest of your room and beyond.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhen it comes to animals and food, a similar strategy is used to search for food (\u201cforaging\u201d). Now, Salk scientists have developed a mathematical theory\u2013based on roundworm foraging\u2013that predicts how animals decide to switch from localized to very broad searching. This new theory could begin to explain animal behavior in a more unified way, laying the groundwork for general rules of behavior that could help us understand complex or erratic attention-related behaviors, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and even let us predict how extraterrestrials might behave.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Animals search a local area intensively (top panel) before switching to exploring the larger “global” area (bottom panel).<\/p>\n

Klicken Sie hier<\/a> f\u00fcr ein hochaufl\u00f6sendes Bild.<\/p>\n

\nBild: Mit freundlicher Genehmigung des Salk Institute for Biological Studies\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n\u201cHow do you decide which route to take home or which problem to work on? This theory is exploring what ultimately makes us human\u2013how we make decisions based on partial information affects all aspects of our lives,\u201d says Tatyana Sharpee<\/a>, associate professor of Salk\u2019s Computational Neurobiology Laboratory<\/a> and senior author of the paper, which was published in eLife<\/em> <\/a>on December 9, 2014.\n<\/p>\n

\nWorms and other animals often follow a chemical trail (a scent, for example) to find their food. But when no chemicals are present they switch to an \u201cinfotaxis\u201d search where information gathering happens in more discrete local and global stages.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhat is surprising is that these simple organisms with a very small nervous system perform\u2013or approximate\u2013fairly complex, multistep, long-term planning strategies,\u201d says Sharpee.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis type of search is like looking for a friend at a crowded beach, says Sreekanth Chalasani<\/a>, assistant professor of Labor f\u00fcr molekulare Neurobiologie<\/a>, holder of Salk\u2019s Helen McLoraine Developmental Chair in Neurobiology and co-senior author of the work. If you think the friend is under a blue umbrella, you won\u2019t necessarily charge to the first blue umbrella you see. You\u2019ll probably first conduct a more global survey of the scene, glancing at all the umbrellas and ruling out areas where blue does not appear. If you still can\u2019t find your friend, you would expand your search to include other locations in addition to under blue umbrellas. Even though you waste some time, you still obtain a lot of information about where this person is likely to be by focusing on things not directly related to your target.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\nSreekanth Chalasani and Tatyana Sharpee<\/p>\n

Klicken Sie hier<\/a> f\u00fcr ein hochaufl\u00f6sendes Bild.<\/p>\n

\nBild: Mit freundlicher Genehmigung des Salk Institute for Biological Studies\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n \u201cSeeking information about a target is often better than seeking the target itself,\u201d says Chalasani. \u201cAnd what this paper confirms in a theoretical model is that you don\u2019t need lots of neurons to perform these searches that include switching from a local to a global search\u2013you can approximate it by using just three neurons, as in the roundworm C. elegans<\/em>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nSuccessfully seeking food is critical to an animal\u2019s survival. Previously, C. elegans<\/em> worms have been shown to conduct an intense search of an area where they believe food to be located. After 15 minutes or so, they turn less and explore a more extended area. Since the worms didn\u2019t have a chemical gradient to follow, the team wanted to explore the underlying strategy of the worms\u2019 behavior. Using data from Chalasani\u2019s experimental studies, Sharpee\u2019s lab developed virtual simulations of the worms to model their behavior.\n<\/p>\n

\nThough this information-maximizing theory has been tested in a few types of behavior, Sharpee and others believe it could provide a basis for a larger, unified framework for understanding different types of behavior across species, cells, neurons and even larger scale phenomenon, such as resource allocation.\n<\/p>\n

\nNext, the researchers plan to see whether the roundworm can\u2013and to what extent\u2013maintain a mental map of its food search and explore the energy costs and benefits of information searching.\n<\/p>\n

\nAuthors of the paper include Adam Calhoun of the University of California, San Diego<\/a>, in addition to Sharpee and Chalasani.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe work was funded by a National Science Foundation<\/a> graduate research fellowship, and the UCSD Institute for Neural Computational<\/a> graduate fellowship to Adam Calhoun, the Rita Allen Foundation<\/a> to Sreekanth Chalasani and a National Science Foundation CAREER award the Nationale Gesundheitsinstitute<\/a>, McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience<\/a> und The Ray Thomas Edwards Foundation<\/a> to Tatyana Sharpee.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u00dcber das Salk Institute for Biological Studies:<\/strong>
\nThe Salk Institute for Biological Studies is one of the world’s preeminent basic research institutions, where internationally renowned faculty probes fundamental life science questions in a unique, collaborative, and creative environment. Focused both on discovery and on mentoring future generations of researchers, Salk scientists make groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of cancer, aging, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and infectious diseases by studying neuroscience, genetics, cell and plant biology, and related disciplines.\n<\/p>\n

\nFaculty achievements have been recognized with numerous honors, including Nobel Prizes and memberships in the National Academy of Sciences. Founded in 1960 by polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk, MD, the Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark.\n<\/p>\n

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