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Dryad

Data from: Maximally informative foraging by Caenorhabditis elegans

Cite this dataset

Calhoun, Adam J.; Chalasani, Sreekanth H.; Sharpee, Tatyana O. (2015). Data from: Maximally informative foraging by Caenorhabditis elegans [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3j2j9

Abstract

Animals have evolved intricate search strategies to find new sources of food. Here, we analyze a complex food seeking behavior in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) to derive a general theory describing different searches. We show that C. elegans, like many other animals, uses a multi-stage search for food, where they initially explore a small area intensively (‘local search’) before switching to explore a much larger area (‘global search’). We demonstrate that these search strategies as well as the transition between them can be quantitatively explained by a maximally informative search strategy, where the searcher seeks to continuously maximize information about the target. Although performing maximally informative search is computationally demanding, we show that a drift-diffusion model can approximate it successfully with just three neurons. Our study reveals how the maximally informative search strategy can be implemented and adopted to different search conditions.

Usage notes

Location

San Diego
CA