Kaplan, Harris et al. (2019) International Worm Meeting "Nested neuronal dynamics orchestrate a behavioral hierarchy across timescales."

Khoss, Niklas, Zimmer, Manuel, Salazar Thula, Oriana, Kaplan, Harris

[International Worm Meeting, 2019]

Classical and modern ethological studies suggest that animal behavior is organized hierarchically across timescales, such that longer-timescale behaviors are composed of specific shorter-timescale actions. Despite progress relating neuronal dynamics to single timescale behavior, it remains unclear how different timescale dynamics interact to give rise to such higher-order behavioral organization. Here we show, in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, that a behavioral hierarchy spanning three timescales is implemented by nested neuronal dynamics. At the uppermost hierarchy level, slow neuronal population dynamics spanning brain and motor periphery control two faster motorneuron oscillations, toggling them between different activity states and functional roles. These faster oscillations are further nested, in a manner that enables flexible behavioral control in an otherwise rigid hierarchical framework. Our findings establish nested neuronal activity patterns as a repeated dynamical motif of the C. elegans nervous system, which together implement a controllable hierarchical organization of behavior.