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DTSTAMP:20260424T084622Z
UID:5a560f16a09b2049903700@ist.ac.at
DTSTART:20180222T100000
DTEND:20180222T110000
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Manuel Zimmer\nhosted by Jozsef Csicsvari\nAbstract: W
 hat are the fundamental principles by which brains perform computations to
  serve behavioral goals? Historical ethology studies suggest that behavior
 al programs are organized in a hierarchical manner\, where overarching dri
 ves consist of finer-scale motor programs and actions. How such an organiz
 ation could be achieved at the neuronal level remains largely elusive. We 
 address this problem by studying the tractable tiny soil worm C. elegans. 
 To date\, it is the only nervous system for which a complete neuronal netw
 ork graph has been mapped.Despite the small size of its brain\, the worm p
 erforms complex behaviors. For example\, the worm orchestrates a variety o
 f motor actions for exploration during food search. Using quantitative beh
 avioral analysis\, we show that this organization can indeed be described 
 in a hierarchical manner: some motor programs executed on a longer timesca
 le (seconds to minutes) can be subdivided into shorter postural syllables 
 that enable different behavioral strategies\, like local exploration or lo
 ng-distance travelling.We set out to investigate how this organization is 
 represented neuronally and therefore developed fast fluorescence microscop
 y techniques\, enabling us to record the activity of nearly all of the ani
 mals nerve cells\, simultaneously and in real time. We discovered that the
  worms brain is not merely a reflexive input-output device\; rather\, it e
 xhibits a wealth of intrinsic activities involving a large fraction of all
  of its interneurons and motor neurons. However\, these neuronal network d
 ynamics are highly coordinated to form low dimensional network attractors 
 that oscillate between various states. In addition\, our datasets revealed
  smaller units of motor-neuron circuits that exhibit central-pattern-gener
 ator (CPG) like activity\, and whose higher frequency oscillations are pha
 se-nested within the larger-scale brain wide oscillations. A functional ch
 aracterization of these dynamics revealed that the brain wide oscillations
  represent the switching between the major overarching motor programs\, an
 d that the nested CPG oscillations are neural correlates of the shorter po
 stural syllables.Our results suggest that the worm brain operates like a d
 ynamical system in which coupling and phase-nesting of intrinsically oscil
 lating neuronal ensembles is a means of information processing to organize
  its actions hierarchically across timescales. Interestingly\, similar neu
 ronal principles can be observed in the study of cognition in higher anima
 ls. The tiny soil worm thus presents a unique opportunity to better unders
 tand these general neuronal phenomena at the level of mechanistic insights
 .
LOCATION:Mondi Seminar Room 2\, Central Building\, ISTA
ORGANIZER:pdelreal@ist.ac.at
SUMMARY:Manuel Zimmer: The Organization of Behavior by Whole Brain Dynamics
  in C. elegans
URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/1069
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