{"id":203645,"date":"2025-01-13T12:02:30","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T18:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/an-integrative-data-driven-model-simulating-c-elegans-brain-body-and-environment-interactions"},"modified":"2025-01-13T12:02:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T18:02:30","slug":"an-integrative-data-driven-model-simulating-c-elegans-brain-body-and-environment-interactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/an-integrative-data-driven-model-simulating-c-elegans-brain-body-and-environment-interactions","title":{"rendered":"An integrative data-driven model simulating C. elegans brain, body and environment interactions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/an-integrative-data-driven-model-simulating-c-elegans-brain-body-and-environment-interactions.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Our neural network model of <i>C. <i>elegans<\/i><\/i> contained 136 neurons that participated in sensory and locomotion functions, as indicated by published studies<sup><a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 24\" title=\"Uzel, K., Kato, S. & Zimmer, M. A set of hub neurons and non-local connectivity features support global brain dynamics in C. elegans. Curr. Biol. 32, 3443&ndash;3459 (2022).\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43588-024-00738-w#ref-CR24\" id=\"ref-link-section-d3694691e705\">24<\/a>,<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" title=\"Gray, J. M., Hill, J. J. & Bargmann, C. I. A circuit for navigation in Caenorhabditis elegans. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 102, 3184&ndash;3191 (2005).\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43588-024-00738-w#ref-CR27\" id=\"ref-link-section-d3694691e708\">27<\/a>,<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" title=\"Chalasani, S. H. et al. Dissecting a circuit for olfactory behaviour in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 450, 63&ndash;70 (2007).\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43588-024-00738-w#ref-CR28\" id=\"ref-link-section-d3694691e708_1\">28<\/a>,<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" title=\"Larsch, J. et al. A circuit for gradient climbing in C. elegans chemotaxis. Cell Rep. 12, 1748&ndash;1760 (2015).\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43588-024-00738-w#ref-CR29\" id=\"ref-link-section-d3694691e708_2\">29<\/a>,<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" title=\"Bargmann, C. I., Hartwieg, E. & Horvitz, H. R. Odorant-selective genes and neurons mediate olfaction in C. elegans. Cell 74515&ndash;527 (1993).\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43588-024-00738-w#ref-CR30\" id=\"ref-link-section-d3694691e708_3\">30<\/a>,<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 31\" title=\"Piggott, B. J., Liu, J., Feng, Z., Wescott, S. A. & Xu, X. S. The neural circuits and synaptic mechanisms underlying motor initiation in C. elegans. Cell 147922&ndash;933 (2011).\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43588-024-00738-w#ref-CR31\" id=\"ref-link-section-d3694691e711\">31<\/a><\/sup>. To construct this model, we first collected the necessary data including neural morphology, ion channel models, electrophysiology of single neurons, connectome, connection models and network activities (Fig. <a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43588-024-00738-w#Fig2\">2a<\/a>). Next, we constructed the individual neuron models and their connections (Fig. <a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43588-024-00738-w#Fig2\">2b<\/a>). At this stage, the biophysically detailed model was only structurally accurate (Fig. <a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43588-024-00738-w#Fig2\">2c<\/a>), without network-level realistic dynamics. Finally, we optimized the weights and polarities of the connections to obtain a model that reflected network-level realistic dynamics (Fig. <a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43588-024-00738-w#Fig2\">2d<\/a>). An overview of the model construction is shown in Fig. <a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43588-024-00738-w#Fig2\">2<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To achieve a high level of biophysical and morphological realism in our model, we used multicompartment models to represent individual neurons. The morphologies of neuron models were constructed on the basis of published morphological data<sup>9,32<\/sup>. Soma and neurite sections were further divided into several segments, where each segment was less than 2 \u03bcm in length. We integrated 14 established classes of ion channels (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2)<sup>33<\/sup> in neuron models and tuned the passive parameters and ion channel conductance densities for each neuron model using an optimization algorithm<sup>34<\/sup>. This tuning was done to accurately reproduce the electrophysiological recordings obtained from patch-clamp experiments<sup>35,36,37,38<\/sup> at the single-neuron level. Based on the few available electrophysiological data, we digitally reconstructed models of five representative neurons: AWC, AIY, AVA, RIM and VD5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our neural network model of C. elegans contained 136 neurons that participated in sensory and locomotion functions, as indicated by published studies24,27,28,29,30,31. To construct this model, we first collected the necessary data including neural morphology, ion channel models, electrophysiology of single neurons, connectome, connection models and network activities (Fig. 2a). Next, we constructed the individual [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information-science","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}