Dimensionality and dynamics in the behavior of C. elegans.

@article{citeulike:2721206, abstract = {A major challenge in analyzing animal behavior is to discover some underlying simplicity in complex motor actions. Here, we show that the space of shapes adopted by the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is low dimensional, with just four dimensions accounting for 95\% of the shape variance. These dimensions provide a quantitative description of worm behavior, and we partially reconstruct "equations of motion" for the dynamics in this space. These dynamics have multiple attractors, and we find that the worm visits these in a rapid and almost completely deterministic response to weak thermal stimuli. Stimulus-dependent correlations among the different modes suggest that one can generate more reliable behaviors by synchronizing stimuli to the state of the worm in shape space. We confirm this prediction, effectively "steering" the worm in real time.}, address = {Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America. gstephen@princeton.edu}, author = {Stephens, G. J. and Johnson-Kerner, B. and Bialek, W. and Ryu, W. S. }, citeulike-article-id = {2721206}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000028}, issn = {1553-7358}, journal = {PLoS computational biology}, keywords = {behavior, c-elegans, dim-reduction, journal-club, pca, synergies}, month = {April}, number = {4}, posted-at = {2008-06-26 19:33:31}, priority = {0}, title = {Dimensionality and dynamics in the behavior of C. elegans.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000028}, volume = {4}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2721206 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2721206 TI - Dimensionality and dynamics in the behavior of C. elegans. JF - PLoS computational biology VL - 4 IS - 4 AD - Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America. gstephen@princeton.edu SN - 1553-7358 N2 - A major challenge in analyzing animal behavior is to discover some underlying simplicity in complex motor actions. Here, we show that the space of shapes adopted by the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is low dimensional, with just four dimensions accounting for 95% of the shape variance. These dimensions provide a quantitative description of worm behavior, and we partially reconstruct "equations of motion" for the dynamics in this space. These dynamics have multiple attractors, and we find that the worm visits these in a rapid and almost completely deterministic response to weak thermal stimuli. Stimulus-dependent correlations among the different modes suggest that one can generate more reliable behaviors by synchronizing stimuli to the state of the worm in shape space. We confirm this prediction, effectively "steering" the worm in real time. KW - behavior KW - c-elegans KW - dim-reduction KW - journal-club KW - pca KW - synergies AU - Stephens, GJ AU - Johnson-Kerner, B AU - Bialek, W AU - Ryu, WS PY - 2008/04// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000028 ER -