Author Topic: How nervous system translates sensory information into motor output  (Read 581 times)

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Scientists study how nervous system translates sensory information into coordinated motor output
Published on July 30, 2011 at 8:14 AM


Escape responses are some of the most studied behaviors by neurobiologists who want to understand how the brain processes sensory information. The ability to evade predators plays a vital role in the process of natural selection. Animals explore their environment to find food, find mates and locate new habitats, and have developed distinct escape responses to avoid predators, thereby increasing their chances for survival. Yet there are few examples that illustrate a complete understanding of the basic biological mechanisms of behavior with its ecological relevance.

New research by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) published this week in Current Biology offers evidence that for the first time illuminates a biological and ecological path that links genes to molecule to neural circuit to behavior to environment. "We're studying how the nervous system generates behavior and translates sensory information into a coordinated motor output," said Mark Alkema, PhD, assistant professor of neurobiology at UMMS and lead author of the study. "For example, when you try to swat a fly, it has to coordinate its leg lift and wing flapping in order to escape being crushed. We believe that the small roundworm C. elegans does something similar in its own escape-response."

A gentle touch to the head of the C. elegans causes the microscopic nematode to cease normal exploratory head movements and quickly reverse direction. This response is one of the rare examples where the complete path from sensory neuron to coordinated motor output is understood by scientists. What wasn't known, however, is why C. elegans would suppress exploratory head movements when touched on the head but not when touched on the nose or tail. While the C. elegans is commonly grown in petri dishes in laboratories, its normal habitat is in the soil. Dr. Alkema and his colleagues at UMMS hypothesized that the nematode adapted this singular behavior in response to predacious fungi found in its natural environment that use constricting rings to trap its prey.


More at: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20110730/Scientists-study-how-nervous-system-translates-sensory-information-into-coordinated-motor-output.aspx



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