Researchers from Princeton University have captured some of the first recordings of the brain activity of a free-moving animal that encompasses nearly every part of the brain. The recordings were made using a novel technique that allowed them to capture 3-D footage of the brain activity in the Caenorhabditis elegans nematode, a worm species with a brain that contains 302 neurons. Furthermore, the researchers were able to correlate the activity of 77 neurons with specific behaviors such as backwards and forwards motion.
Previous groups that conducted similar research focused only on small subregions of the brain or based their work on organisms that have limited mobility, making this new study a step forward in the field.
"This system is exciting because it provides the most detailed picture yet of brain-wide neural activity with single-neuron resolution in the brain of an animal that is free to move around," Andrew Leifer, co-author of the study, said in a press release. "Neuroscience is at the beginning of a transition towards larger-scale recordings of neural activity and towards studying animals under more natural conditions. This work helps push the field forward on both fronts."
While the nervous system of C. elegans is simple, it provided Leifer and his team with a simple testing ground for their instrument and could reveal information regarding how neurons work that will help advance our understanding of more complex organisms.
"One reason we were successful was that we chose to work with a very simple organism," he said. "It would be immensely more difficult to perform whole-brain recordings in humans. The technology needed to perform similar recordings in humans is many years away."
The paper was published in the Sept. 30 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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