Behavioral plasticity, learning, and memory in C. elegans

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Sasakura ◽  
Ikue Mori
Keyword(s):  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
C Elegans

scholarly journals Inhibition of mTOR signaling by genetic removal of p70 S6 Kinase 1 leads to anxiety-like disorders

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muriel Koehl ◽  
Elodie Ladeveze ◽  
Caterina Catania ◽  
Daniela Cota ◽  
Djoher Nora Abrous
Keyword(s):  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Mtor Inhibitors ◽  
Reference Memory ◽  
Contextual Fear Conditioning ◽  
Affective States ◽  
S6 Kinase ◽  
P70 S6 Kinase ◽  
Downstream Target ◽  
Regulate Protein

ABSTRACTThe mechanistic target or rapamycin (mTOR) is a ubiquitously expressed kinase that acts through two complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2, to regulate protein homeostasis as well as long lasting forms of synaptic and behavioral plasticity. Alteration of the mTOR pathway is classically involved in neurodegenerative disorders, and it has been linked to dysregulation of cognitive functions and affective states. However, information concerning the specific involvement of the p70 S6 kinase 1 (S6K1), a downstream target of the mTORC1 pathway, in learning and memory processes and in the regulation of affective states remains scant. To fill this gap, we exposed adult male mice lacking S6K1 to a battery of behavioral tests aimed at measuring their learning and memory capabilities by evaluating reference memory and flexibility with the Morris water maze, and associative memory using the contextual fear conditioning task. We also studied their anxiety- and depression-like behaviors by respectively performing elevated plus maze, open field, light-dark emergence tests, and sucrose preference and forced swim tests. We found that deleting S6K1 leads to a robust anxious phenotype concomitant with associative learning deficits; these symptoms are associated with a reduction of adult neurogenesis and neuronal atrophy in the hippocampus. Collectively, these results provide grounds for the understanding of anxiety reports after treatments with mTOR inhibitors and will be critical for the development of novel compounds targeting anxiety.

scholarly journals Neuropeptides and Behaviors: How Small Peptides Regulate Nervous System Function and Behavioral Outputs

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umer Saleem Bhat ◽  
Navneet Shahi ◽  
Siju Surendran ◽  
Kavita Babu
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Synaptic Activity ◽  
Small Peptides ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Nervous System Function ◽  
Insight Into

One of the reasons that most multicellular animals survive and thrive is because of the adaptable and plastic nature of their nervous systems. For an organism to survive, it is essential for the animal to respond and adapt to environmental changes. This is achieved by sensing external cues and translating them into behaviors through changes in synaptic activity. The nervous system plays a crucial role in constantly evaluating environmental cues and allowing for behavioral plasticity in the organism. Multiple neurotransmitters and neuropeptides have been implicated as key players for integrating sensory information to produce the desired output. Because of its simple nervous system and well-established neuronal connectome, C. elegans acts as an excellent model to understand the mechanisms underlying behavioral plasticity. Here, we critically review how neuropeptides modulate a wide range of behaviors by allowing for changes in neuronal and synaptic signaling. This review will have a specific focus on feeding, mating, sleep, addiction, learning and locomotory behaviors in C. elegans. With a view to understand evolutionary relationships, we explore the functions and associated pathophysiology of C. elegans neuropeptides that are conserved across different phyla. Further, we discuss the mechanisms of neuropeptidergic signaling and how these signals are regulated in different behaviors. Finally, we attempt to provide insight into developing potential therapeutics for neuropeptide-related disorders.

scholarly journals Distinct roles of the RasGAP family proteins in C. elegans associative learning and memory

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Dávid Gyurkó ◽  
Péter Csermely ◽  
Csaba Sőti ◽  
Attila Steták
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Learning And Memory ◽  
C Elegans

Neutral Sphingomyelinase is an Affective Valence-Dependent Regulator of Learning and Memory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liubov S Kalinichenko ◽  
Laila Abdel-Hafiz ◽  
An-Li Wang ◽  
Christiane Mühle ◽  
Nadine Rösel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Neutral Sphingomyelinase ◽  
Healthy Humans

Abstract Sphingolipids and enzymes of the sphingolipid rheostat determine synaptic appearance and signaling in the brain, but sphingolipid contribution to normal behavioral plasticity is little understood. Here we asked how the sphingolipid rheostat contributes to learning and memory of various dimensions. We investigated the role of these lipids in the mechanisms of two different types of memory, such as appetitively and aversively motivated memory, which are considered to be mediated by different neural mechanisms. We found an association between superior performance in short- and long-term appetitively motivated learning and regionally enhanced neutral sphingomyelinase (NSM) activity. An opposite interaction was observed in an aversively motivated task. A valence-dissociating role of NSM in learning was confirmed in mice with genetically reduced NSM activity. This role may be mediated by the NSM control of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor subunit expression. In a translational approach, we confirmed a positive association of serum NSM activity with long-term appetitively motivated memory in nonhuman primates and in healthy humans. Altogether, these data suggest a new sphingolipid mechanism of de-novo learning and memory, which is based on NSM activity.

scholarly journals Learning and Memory: Mind over Matter in C. elegans

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. R365-R367
Author(s):  
Menachem Katz ◽  
Shai Shaham
Keyword(s):  
Learning And Memory ◽  
C Elegans

scholarly journals Memory of recent oxygen experience switches pheromone valence in Caenorhabditis elegans

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (16) ◽  
pp. 4195-4200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenz A. Fenk ◽  
Mario de Bono
Keyword(s):  
Caenorhabditis Elegans ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Oxygen Environment ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Sustained Change ◽  
Context Dependent ◽  
Physiological Correlate

Animals adjust their behavioral priorities according to momentary needs and prior experience. We show that Caenorhabditis elegans changes how it processes sensory information according to the oxygen environment it experienced recently. C. elegans acclimated to 7% O2 are aroused by CO2 and repelled by pheromones that attract animals acclimated to 21% O2. This behavioral plasticity arises from prolonged activity differences in a circuit that continuously signals O2 levels. A sustained change in the activity of O2-sensing neurons reprograms the properties of their postsynaptic partners, the RMG hub interneurons. RMG is gap-junctionally coupled to the ASK and ADL pheromone sensors that respectively drive pheromone attraction and repulsion. Prior O2 experience has opposite effects on the pheromone responsiveness of these neurons. These circuit changes provide a physiological correlate of altered pheromone valence. Our results suggest C. elegans stores a memory of recent O2 experience in the RMG circuit and illustrate how a circuit is flexibly sculpted to guide behavioral decisions in a context-dependent manner.

Caenorhabditis elegans Learning and Memory

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
James S.H. Wong ◽  
Catharine H. Rankin
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Caenorhabditis Elegans ◽  
Classical Conditioning ◽  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Context Conditioning ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
C Elegans

The nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), is an organism useful for the study of learning and memory at the molecular, cellular, neural circuitry, and behavioral levels. Its genetic tractability, transparency, connectome, and accessibility for in vivo cellular and molecular analyses are a few of the characteristics that make the organism such a powerful system for investigating mechanisms of learning and memory. It is able to learn and remember across many sensory modalities, including mechanosensation, chemosensation, thermosensation, oxygen sensing, and carbon dioxide sensing. C. elegans habituates to mechanosensory stimuli, and shows short-, intermediate-, and long-term memory, and context conditioning for mechanosensory habituation. The organism also displays chemotaxis to various chemicals, such as diacetyl and sodium chloride. This behavior is associated with several forms of learning, including state-dependent learning, classical conditioning, and aversive learning. C. elegans also shows thermotactic learning in which it learns to associate a particular temperature with the presence or absence of food. In addition, both oxygen preference and carbon dioxide avoidance in C. elegans can be altered by experience, indicating that they have memory for the oxygen or carbon dioxide environment they were reared in. Many of the genes found to underlie learning and memory in C. elegans are homologous to genes involved in learning and memory in mammals; two examples are crh-1, which is the C. elegans homolog of the cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB), and glr-1, which encodes an AMPA glutamate receptor subunit. Both of these genes are involved in long-term memory for tap habituation, context conditioning in tap habituation, and chemosensory classical conditioning. C. elegans offers the advantage of having a very small nervous system (302 neurons), thus it is possible to understand what these conserved genes are doing at the level of single identified neurons. As many mechanisms of learning and memory in C. elegans appear to be similar in more complex organisms including humans, research with C. elegans aids our ever-growing understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of learning and memory across the animal kingdom.

scholarly journals Ca2+ Signaling via the Neuronal Calcium Sensor-1 Regulates Associative Learning and Memory in C. elegans

Neuron ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Gomez ◽  
Edouard De Castro ◽  
Ernesto Guarin ◽  
Hiroyuki Sasakura ◽  
Atsushi Kuhara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Calcium Sensor ◽  
Neuronal Calcium Sensor ◽  
C Elegans
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document