"The C.
Originally shared by rasha kamel
"The C. elegans roundworm sees by eating, sucking in big gulps of bacteria to learn about its surrounding environment. As researchers watched, they noticed an odd pattern marked by "bursts" of eating.
UChicago scientists in a new study use a mathematical model to explain such eating bursts. The findings, published Aug. 10 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, help inform a broader understanding of animals' feeding behavior and the science of decision-making.
"It's an interesting model for understanding the processes that underlie how animals decide where and when to eat," said lead author Monika Scholz, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute international student research fellow with UChicago's Biophysical Sciences program and now at Princeton University. "For these worms, it's all about the balance between speed and accuracy."
Roundworms live in big colonies in soil, such as compost piles, searching for bacteria to eat. Because they lack eyes, roundworms taste as they travel, but every gulp comes with a cost: The bite could contain delicious bacteria, or toxins, or nothing, in which case they've spent energy with no outcome".
https://m.phys.org/news/2017-08-mathematical-elegans-decision-making.html
"The C. elegans roundworm sees by eating, sucking in big gulps of bacteria to learn about its surrounding environment. As researchers watched, they noticed an odd pattern marked by "bursts" of eating.
UChicago scientists in a new study use a mathematical model to explain such eating bursts. The findings, published Aug. 10 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, help inform a broader understanding of animals' feeding behavior and the science of decision-making.
"It's an interesting model for understanding the processes that underlie how animals decide where and when to eat," said lead author Monika Scholz, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute international student research fellow with UChicago's Biophysical Sciences program and now at Princeton University. "For these worms, it's all about the balance between speed and accuracy."
Roundworms live in big colonies in soil, such as compost piles, searching for bacteria to eat. Because they lack eyes, roundworms taste as they travel, but every gulp comes with a cost: The bite could contain delicious bacteria, or toxins, or nothing, in which case they've spent energy with no outcome".
https://m.phys.org/news/2017-08-mathematical-elegans-decision-making.html
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