PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Daniel A. Porto
AU  - John Giblin
AU  - Yiran Zhao
AU  - Hang Lu
TI  - Reverse-Correlation Analysis of Mechanosensation Circuit in <em>C. elegans</em> Reveals Temporal and Spatial Encoding
AID  - 10.1101/147363
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 147363
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/07/147363.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/07/147363.full
AB  - Animals must integrate the activity of multiple mechanoreceptors to navigate complex environments. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the general roles of the mechanosensory neurons have been defined, but most studies involve limited types of stimuli, potentially biasing the characterization. Here, we formulate unbiased descriptions of the mechanosensory system by using reverse correlation analysis. We use a custom tracking, selective illumination, and optogenetics platform to compare two mechanosensory systems: the gentle-touch and harsh-touch neurons. This method yields linear filters that capture dynamics, consistent with previous findings, as well as new insights on the spatial encoding. Our results suggest that the tiled network of the gentle-touch neurons has better resolution for spatial encoding than the harsh-touch neurons. Additionally, linear-nonlinear models accurately predict behavioral responses based only on sensory neuron activity. Our results capture the overall dynamics of behavior induced by the activation of sensory neurons, providing simple transformations that fully characterize these systems.