Sophisticated worms
It’s one of the basic tenets of biological research — by studying simple “model” systems, researchers hope to gain insight into the workings of more complex organisms. Caenorhabditis elegans — a tiny, translucent worm with just 302 neurons — has long been studied to understand how a nervous system is capable of translating sensory input into motion and behavior. New research by the laboratory of Professor Aravi Samuel in the Harvard Physics Department and the Center for Brain Sciences, however, is uncovering surprising sophistication in the individual neurons of the worm’s “simple” nervous system. Quan Wen, a postdoctoral fellow in the Samuel lab who spearheaded the research, has shown that a single type of neuron in the C. elegans nerve cord (the worm equivalent of the spinal cord) packs both sensory and motor capabilities. The locomotory systems of most creatures, including humans, use different neurons to gather sensory information about animal movement or...