Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Predicting natural behavior from whole-brain neural dynamics

View ORCID ProfileMonika Scholz, Ashley N Linder, View ORCID ProfileFrancesco Randi, View ORCID ProfileAnuj K Sharma, View ORCID ProfileXinwei Yu, View ORCID ProfileJoshua W Shaevitz, View ORCID ProfileAndrew M Leifer
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/445643
Monika Scholz
1Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Monika Scholz
Ashley N Linder
2Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Francesco Randi
1Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Francesco Randi
Anuj K Sharma
1Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Anuj K Sharma
Xinwei Yu
1Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Xinwei Yu
Joshua W Shaevitz
1Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
3Lewis Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Joshua W Shaevitz
Andrew M Leifer
1Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
2Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Andrew M Leifer
  • For correspondence: leifer@princeton.edu
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

We record calcium activity from the majority of head neurons in freely moving C. elegans to reveal where and how natural behavior is encoded in a compact brain. We find that a sparse subset of neurons distributed throughout the head encode locomotion. A linear combination of these neurons’ activity predicts the animal’s velocity and body curvature and is sufficient to infer its posture. This sparse linear model outperforms single neuron or PCA models at predicting behavior. Among neurons important for the prediction are well-known locomotory neurons, such as AVA, as well as neurons not traditionally associated with locomotion. We compare neural activity of the same animal during unrestrained movement and during immobilization and find large differences between brain-wide neural dynamics during real and fictive locomotion.

One Sentence Summary C. elegans behavior is predicted from neural activity.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted October 17, 2018.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Predicting natural behavior from whole-brain neural dynamics
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Predicting natural behavior from whole-brain neural dynamics
Monika Scholz, Ashley N Linder, Francesco Randi, Anuj K Sharma, Xinwei Yu, Joshua W Shaevitz, Andrew M Leifer
bioRxiv 445643; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/445643
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Predicting natural behavior from whole-brain neural dynamics
Monika Scholz, Ashley N Linder, Francesco Randi, Anuj K Sharma, Xinwei Yu, Joshua W Shaevitz, Andrew M Leifer
bioRxiv 445643; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/445643

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4395)
  • Biochemistry (9613)
  • Bioengineering (7110)
  • Bioinformatics (24911)
  • Biophysics (12642)
  • Cancer Biology (9978)
  • Cell Biology (14375)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7967)
  • Ecology (12131)
  • Epidemiology (2067)
  • Evolutionary Biology (16007)
  • Genetics (10937)
  • Genomics (14762)
  • Immunology (9886)
  • Microbiology (23701)
  • Molecular Biology (9491)
  • Neuroscience (50960)
  • Paleontology (370)
  • Pathology (1544)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2688)
  • Physiology (4031)
  • Plant Biology (8677)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1512)
  • Synthetic Biology (2402)
  • Systems Biology (6446)
  • Zoology (1346)