summary: Researchers have discovered that this humble roundworm may have insight into basic emotional mechanisms. When subjected to electric shocks, these worms exhibited behavior consistent with a primitive form of emotion, prioritizing danger over food.
This study leverages genetic analysis to suggest that these reactions may be governed by active genetic mechanisms, shedding light on the roots of emotions even in complex beings like humans. Masu. This basic research could pave the way for new treatments for emotional disorders.
Important facts:
- When roundworms received electric shocks, they exhibited behaviors consistent with basic “emotions,” such as prioritizing escape over food.
- Genetic analysis reveals that neuropeptides (hormone-like) play a role in regulating this ’emotional’ response, suggesting there may be active genetic mechanisms behind emotions .
- Discovery of emotion-related genes in C. elegans could provide potential targets for the treatment of emotional disorders in humans, given their genetic similarities.
sauce: Nagoya City University
Brain research is one of the most important fields in modern life science, and “emotion” is one of its main themes. Studying animal emotions has long been considered difficult, with limited research focusing primarily on “fear” in mice and rats.
Since the 2010s, scientific papers have increasingly reported that crayfish and flies may have brain functions similar to emotions, focusing on some behavioral characteristics such as persistence and aggressiveness. Ta.
For example, when an animal experiences a dangerous situation, even briefly, such as being attacked by a predator (negatively valenced), the animal’s behavior changes, even if it is hungry, it usually approaches the attractive food may ignore the smell and stay in a safe location. A fixed length of time (duration) that can be controlled by a primitive form of emotion. However, the details of these basic “emotional mechanisms” are largely unknown.
An international research team from Nagoya City University (Japan) and Northeastern University’s Mills College (USA) has revealed that Caenorhabditis elegans may have basic emotions. They used this worm because it has been used for detailed analyzes of fundamental functions such as perception, memory, and even decision-making at the cellular and genetic level.
This study genetics.
The research team initially discovered that when the worms were exposed to alternating current stimulation, they began to move at unexpectedly high speeds. Interestingly, the research team also found that this “running” response lasted for 1 to 2 minutes even after the several seconds of electrical stimulation had ended.
Generally, in animals, when a stimulus stops, the response to that stimulus stops immediately. (Otherwise, the perception of stimuli such as sounds and scenes will remain.) Therefore, the response of “keep running even if the stimulus stops” is exceptional.
Furthermore, during and after the electrical stimulation, the researchers found that the worms ignored dietary bacteria, which provided important environmental information. This suggests that while the presence or absence of food bacteria is usually important, the danger posed by electric shock, a survival-threatening stimulus, is even more important.
In other words, if a nematode senses the dangerous stimulus of an electric shock, its first priority for survival is to flee from the area. To accomplish this, the brain’s function appears to continually change, such as ignoring normally important “food” to avoid danger. This suggests that the phenomenon of “a worm continuing to run due to short-term electrical stimulation” reflects a fundamental “emotion.”
Furthermore, through genetic analysis that takes advantage of the particular advantages of C. elegans, it was revealed that mutants that cannot produce neuropeptides that correspond to hormones spend a longer time continuously running in response to electrical stimulation than normal C. elegans. did.
This result shows that the continuation state depending on the danger is controlled to end at an appropriate timing. In fact, when excitement or fear lasts for a very long time, it can disrupt your daily life.
Therefore, the results of this study suggest that emotions such as “excitement,” “happiness,” and “sadness” induced by stimuli are not destined to disappear naturally over time, but rather are caused by active mechanisms involving genes. This suggests that it may be controlled by
This study shows that using worms can provide detailed insight into the genetic mechanisms underlying primitive “emotions.” Many of the genes working in nematodes are known to have corresponding genes in humans and other organisms, so research is progressing. insect This may provide important clues about the genes involved in the basis of emotion.
Specifically, conditions such as depression, which are classified as mood disorders, can be interpreted as conditions in which negative emotions are maintained excessively and persistently due to an inability to effectively process experienced stimuli. If new genes associated with emotion are discovered through research in C. elegans, these genes could become targets for new treatments for emotional disorders.
About this emotion and evolutionary neuroscience research news
author: Ling Fei Tea
sauce: Nagoya City University
contact: Lin Fei Tee – Nagoya City University
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“Electric shock induces persistent behavioral responses such as flight in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans” Ling Fei Tee et al. genetics
abstract
Electric shock induces persistent behavioral responses such as flight in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegant
Behavioral persistence reflects internal brain states that are the basis of multiple brain functions. However, experimental paradigms that allow genetic analysis of behavioral persistence and related brain functions are limited. Here we report a new sustained behavioral response evoked by electrical stimulation in C. elegans. Caenorhabditis elegant.
When an animal fed a bacterial diet is given an alternating stimulus, its locomotion speed rapidly increases two to three times, and even a five-second stimulus lasts for more than a minute.
Genetic analysis reveals that voltage-gated channels in neurons are required for the response, likely as sensors, and that neuropeptide signaling regulates the duration of sustained responses. Additional behavioral analyzes suggest that the animal’s response to electric shocks is scalable and has a negative valence.
These properties, along with persistence, have recently been considered essential features of emotions, suggesting that: C.Elegance Reactions to electric shocks may reflect a type of emotion similar to fear.