Tod Thiele et al. (2002) West Coast Worm Meeting "The step response of spatial orientation behaviors in C. elegans."

Tod Thiele, Hatim Zariwala, Shawn R Lockery, Adam C Miller, Serge Faumont

[West Coast Worm Meeting, 2002]

C. elegans exhibits two forms of spatial orientation behavior: migration to the peak of a chemical gradient (chemotaxis) and migration to cultivation temperature in a thermal gradient (thermotaxis). Both behaviors involve successive comparisons of stimulus strength through time, a process analogous to computing the time derivative of the stimulus. To investigate the neuronal basis of this computation, we devised a means of delivering rapid, step-like changes in chemical concentration or temperature to freely moving worms.