Browse
Submit Data
Databases
API
Help

Dataset Information

32 Views

0 Connections

0 Citations

0 Reanalyses

0 Downloads

Omics score: 0

GABAergic motor neurons bias locomotor decision-making in C. elegans.

ABSTRACT: Proper threat-reward decision-making is critical to animal survival. Emerging evidence indicates that the motor system may participate in decision-making but the neural circuit and molecular bases for these functions are little known. We found in C. elegans that GABAergic motor neurons (D-MNs) bias toward the reward behavior in threat-reward decision-making by retrogradely inhibiting a pair of premotor command interneurons, AVA, that control cholinergic motor neurons in the avoidance neural circuit. This function of D-MNs is mediated by a specific ionotropic GABA receptor (UNC-49) in AVA, and depends on electrical coupling between the two AVA interneurons. Our results suggest that AVA are hub neurons where sensory inputs from threat and reward sensory modalities and motor information from D-MNs are integrated. This study demonstrates at single-neuron resolution how motor neurons may help shape threat-reward choice behaviors through interacting with other neurons.

SUBMITTER: Liu P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7544903 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Json Xml

Publications

GABAergic motor neurons bias locomotor decision-making in C. elegans.

Liu Ping P Chen Bojun B Wang Zhao-Wen ZW

Nature communications 20201008 1

Proper threat-reward decision-making is critical to animal survival. Emerging evidence indicates that the motor system may participate in decision-making but the neural circuit and molecular bases for these functions are little known. We found in C. elegans that GABAergic motor neurons (D-MNs) bias toward the reward behavior in threat-reward decision-making by retrogradely inhibiting a pair of premotor command interneurons, AVA, that control cholinergic motor neurons in the avoidance neural circ ...[more]

PMID: 33033264

Similar Datasets

Bias in Prestimulus Motor Cortical Activity Determines Decision-making Error in Rodents.

Project description:Decision-making is a complex process that involves the integration and interpretation of sensory information to guide actions. The rodent motor cortex, which is generally involved in motor planning and execution, also plays a critical role in decision-making processes. In perceptual delayed-response tasks, the rodent motor cortex can represent sensory cues, as well as the decision of where to move. However, it remains unclear whether erroneous decisions arise from incorrect encoding of sensory information or improper utilization of the collected sensory information in the motor cortex. In this study, we analyzed the rodent anterior lateral motor cortex (ALM) while the mice performed perceptual delayed-response tasks. We divided population activities into sensory and choice signals to separately examine the encoding and utilization of sensory information. We found that the encoding of sensory information in the error trials was similar to that in the hit trials, whereas choice signals evolved differently between the error and hit trials. In error trials, choice signals displayed an offset in the opposite direction of instructed licking even before stimulus presentation, and this tendency gradually increased after stimulus onset, leading to incorrect licking. These findings suggest that decision errors are caused by biases in choice-related activities rather than by incorrect sensory encoding. Our study elaborates on the understanding of decision-making processes by providing neural substrates for erroneous decisions.

| S-EPMC10569143 | biostudies-literature

Plasticity in gustatory and nociceptive neurons controls decision making in C. elegans salt navigation.

Project description:A conventional understanding of perception assigns sensory organs the role of capturing the environment. Better sensors result in more accurate encoding of stimuli, allowing for cognitive processing downstream. Here we show that plasticity in sensory neurons mediates a behavioral switch in C. elegans between attraction to NaCl in naïve animals and avoidance of NaCl in preconditioned animals, called gustatory plasticity. Ca2+ imaging in ASE and ASH NaCl sensing neurons reveals multiple cell-autonomous and distributed circuit adaptation mechanisms. A computational model quantitatively accounts for observed behaviors and reveals roles for sensory neurons in the control and modulation of motor behaviors, decision making and navigational strategy. Sensory adaptation dynamically alters the encoding of the environment. Rather than encoding the stimulus directly, therefore, we propose that these C. elegans sensors dynamically encode a context-dependent value of the stimulus. Our results demonstrate how adaptive sensory computation can directly control an animal's behavioral state.

| S-EPMC8429449 | biostudies-literature

A Caenorhabditis elegans JNK signal transduction pathway regulates coordinated movement via type-D GABAergic motor neurons.

Project description:The c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) of the MAP kinase superfamily is activated in response to a variety of cellular stresses and is involved in apoptosis in neurons. However, the roles of the JNK signaling pathway in the nervous system are unknown. The genes for the Caenorhabditis elegans homolog of JNK, JNK-1, and its direct activator, JKK-1, were isolated based on their abilities to function in the Hog1 MAP kinase pathway in yeast. JKK-1 is a member of the MAP kinase kinase superfamily and functions as a specific activator of JNK. Both jnk-1 and jkk-1 are expressed in most neurons. jkk-1 null mutant animals exhibit defects in locomotion that can be rescued by the conditional expression of JKK-1 in mutant adults, suggesting that the defect is not due to a developmental error. Furthermore, ectopic expression of JKK-1 in type-D motor neurons is sufficient to rescue the movement defect. Thus, the C.elegans JNK pathway functions in type-D GABAergic motor neurons and thereby modulates coordinated locomotion.

| S-EPMC1171439 | biostudies-other

Distinct Corticostriatal GABAergic Neurons Modulate Striatal Output Neurons and Motor Activity.

Project description:The motor cortico-basal ganglion loop is critical for motor planning, execution, and learning. Balanced excitation and inhibition in this loop is crucial for proper motor output. Excitatory neurons have been thought to be the only source of motor cortical input to the striatum. Here, we identify long-range projecting GABAergic neurons in the primary (M1) and secondary (M2) motor cortex that target the dorsal striatum. This population of projecting GABAergic neurons comprises both somatostatin-positive (SOM+) and parvalbumin-positive (PV+) neurons that target direct and indirect pathway striatal output neurons as well as cholinergic interneurons differentially. Notably, optogenetic stimulation of M1 PV+ and M2 SOM+ projecting neurons reduced locomotion, whereas stimulation of M1 SOM+ projecting neurons enhanced locomotion. Thus, corticostriatal GABAergic projections modulate striatal output and motor activity.

| S-EPMC5437725 | biostudies-literature

Equality bias impairs collective decision-making across cultures.

Project description:We tend to think that everyone deserves an equal say in a debate. This seemingly innocuous assumption can be damaging when we make decisions together as part of a group. To make optimal decisions, group members should weight their differing opinions according to how competent they are relative to one another; whenever they differ in competence, an equal weighting is suboptimal. Here, we asked how people deal with individual differences in competence in the context of a collective perceptual decision-making task. We developed a metric for estimating how participants weight their partner's opinion relative to their own and compared this weighting to an optimal benchmark. Replicated across three countries (Denmark, Iran, and China), we show that participants assigned nearly equal weights to each other's opinions regardless of true differences in their competence-even when informed by explicit feedback about their competence gap or under monetary incentives to maximize collective accuracy. This equality bias, whereby people behave as if they are as good or as bad as their partner, is particularly costly for a group when a competence gap separates its members.

| S-EPMC4378431 | biostudies-literature

Sexually dimorphic control of gene expression in sensory neurons regulates decision-making behavior in C. elegans.

Project description:Animal behavior is directed by the integration of sensory information from internal states and the environment. Neuroendocrine regulation of diverse behaviors of Caenorhabditis elegans is under the control of the DAF-7/TGF-β ligand that is secreted from sensory neurons. Here, we show that C. elegans males exhibit an altered, male-specific expression pattern of daf-7 in the ASJ sensory neuron pair with the onset of reproductive maturity, which functions to promote male-specific mate-searching behavior. Molecular genetic analysis of the switch-like regulation of daf-7 expression in the ASJ neuron pair reveals a hierarchy of regulation among multiple inputs-sex, age, nutritional status, and microbial environment-which function in the modulation of behavior. Our results suggest that regulation of gene expression in sensory neurons can function in the integration of a wide array of sensory information and facilitate decision-making behaviors in C. elegans.

| S-EPMC5262377 | biostudies-literature

Involving the motor system in decision making.

Project description:The control of behaviour is usually understood in terms of three distinct components: sensory processing, decision making and movement control. Recently, this view has been questioned on the basis of physiological and behavioural data, blurring the distinction between these three stages. This raises the question to what extent the motor system itself can contribute to the interpretation of behavioural situations. To investigate this question we use a neural model of sensory motor integration applied to a behaving mobile robot performing a navigation task. We show that the population response of the motor system provides a substrate for the categorization of behavioural situations. This categorization allows for the assessment of the complexity of a behavioural situation and regulates whether higher-level decision making is required to resolve behavioural conflicts. Our model lends credence to an emerging reconceptualization of behavioural control where the motor system can be considered as part of a high-level perceptual system.

| S-EPMC1809980 | biostudies-literature

Predicting explorative motor learning using decision-making and motor noise.

Project description:A fundamental problem faced by humans is learning to select motor actions based on noisy sensory information and incomplete knowledge of the world. Recently, a number of authors have asked whether this type of motor learning problem might be very similar to a range of higher-level decision-making problems. If so, participant behaviour on a high-level decision-making task could be predictive of their performance during a motor learning task. To investigate this question, we studied performance during an explorative motor learning task and a decision-making task which had a similar underlying structure with the exception that it was not subject to motor (execution) noise. We also collected an independent measurement of each participant's level of motor noise. Our analysis showed that explorative motor learning and decision-making could be modelled as the (approximately) optimal solution to a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process bounded by noisy neural information processing. The model was able to predict participant performance in motor learning by using parameters estimated from the decision-making task and the separate motor noise measurement. This suggests that explorative motor learning can be formalised as a sequential decision-making process that is adjusted for motor noise, and raises interesting questions regarding the neural origin of explorative motor learning.

| S-EPMC5421818 | biostudies-literature

Interneuron control of C. elegans developmental decision-making.

Project description:Natural environments are highly dynamic, and this complexity challenges animals to accurately integrate external cues to shape their responses. Adaptive developmental plasticity enables organisms to remodel their physiology, morphology, and behavior to better suit the predicted future environment and ultimately enhance their ecological success.1 Understanding how an animal generates a neural representation of current and forecasted environmental conditions and converts these circuit computations into a predictive adaptive physiological response may provide fundamental insights into the molecular and cellular basis of decision-making over developmentally relevant timescales. Although it is known that sensory cues usually trigger the developmental switch and that downstream inter-tissue signaling pathways enact the alternative developmental phenotype, the integrative neural mechanisms that transduce external inputs into effector pathways are less clear.2,3 In adverse environments, Caenorhabditis elegans larvae can enter a stress-resistant diapause state with arrested metabolism and reproductive physiology.4 Amphid sensory neurons feed into both rapid chemotactic and short-term foraging mode decisions, mediated by amphid and pre-motor interneurons, as well as the long-term diapause entry decision. Here, we identify amphid interneurons that integrate pheromone cues and propagate this information via a neuropeptidergic pathway to influence larval developmental fate, bypassing the pre-motor system. AIA interneuron-derived FLP-2 neuropeptide signaling promotes reproductive growth, and AIA activity is suppressed by pheromones. FLP-2 signaling is inhibited by upstream glutamatergic transmission via the metabotropic receptor MGL-1 and mediated by the broadly expressed neuropeptide G-protein-coupled receptor NPR-30. Thus, metabotropic signaling allows the reuse of parts of a sensory system for a decision with a distinct timescale.

| S-EPMC9270850 | biostudies-literature

A screen for constituents of motor control and decision making in Drosophila reveals visual distance-estimation neurons.

Project description:Climbing over chasms larger than step size is vital to fruit flies, since foraging and mating are achieved while walking. Flies avoid futile climbing attempts by processing parallax-motion vision to estimate gap width. To identify neuronal substrates of climbing control, we screened a large collection of fly lines with temporarily inactivated neuronal populations in a novel high-throughput assay described here. The observed climbing phenotypes were classified; lines in each group are reported. Selected lines were further analysed by high-resolution video cinematography. One striking class of flies attempts to climb chasms of unsurmountable width; expression analysis guided us to C2 optic-lobe interneurons. Inactivation of C2 or the closely related C3 neurons with highly specific intersectional driver lines consistently reproduced hyperactive climbing whereas strong or weak artificial depolarization of C2/C3 neurons strongly or mildly decreased climbing frequency. Contrast-manipulation experiments support our conclusion that C2/C3 neurons are part of the distance-evaluation system.

| S-EPMC4891706 | biostudies-other

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

OmicsDI is an Elixir interoperability service. Learn more ›

Tweets

OmicsDI Databases

PRIDE
PeptideAtlas
MassIVE
JPOST Repository
Physiome Model Repository

EGA
EVA
ENA
LINCS
PAXDB
Cell Collective

MetaboLights
Metabolomics Workbench
MetabolomeExpress
GNPS
BioModels
FAIRDOMHub

ArrayExpress
dbGaP
ExpressionAtlas
GEO
NODE

Information

Databases
Help
API
Contact us
Code on GitHub
Terms of use
Submit Data