Life Sciences Commons^™

Neural Signaling Dynamics Of Conditioning In C. Elegans, Micaela R. Pribic

WWU Graduate School Collection

Retrograde signaling from downstream effectors (i.e., motor neurons) can modulate plasticity. Much research has focused on the learned association of closely timed sensory stimuli. By comparison, there is less research probing the potential influence of how or if activation at downstream neuromuscular junctions (NMJ) could modulate associative conditioning. Using channelrhodopsin activation of body wall muscle and different motor neuron subsets (cholinergic motor neurons that drive contraction and GABAergic motor neurons that drive relaxation of muscle) in the Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) model system, we examined if concurrent excitation in these downstream circuits influences associative conditioning.

Conditioning consisted of pairing two …