As scientists discover more about the brain and how it works, it can help to know how much brain matter is required to perform certain functions, and to be able to make complex decisions.
The study looked at the predatory worm Pristionchus pacificus. Researchers were able to analyze the worm's decision-making when it relied on biting to snack on its prey or defend its food source.
The team looked at the behavior of P. pacificus when confronted with different types of threat, instead of looking at the actual cells.
"Our study shows you can use a simple system such as the worm to study something complex, like goal-directed decision-making," says neurobiologist Sreekanth Chalasani from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California.
Behavior can tell us a lot about how the brain works.
The Caenorhabditis worm and P. pacificus were both being bitten to deter them from eating each other.
P. pacificus chose to bite to kill. The adults of P. pacificus worms were able to force C. elegans away from food sources. There is evidence of a switch in strategy.
The scientists determined that bites on adult C. elegans were intended to drive them away, because they weren't simply failed attempts.
It hasn't previously been clear that worms have the brainpower to weigh up the pros and cons of actions.
When P. pacificus bites, scientists thought it was for a singular predatory purpose.
P. pacificus can use the same action to achieve different goals. I was surprised to see that P. pacificus could use failed prey into successful and goal-directed territoriality.
The number of human beings with 302 neurons is very small. It seems that the decision-making basics are very easy to code.
One of the fields that this new research could help with is in the development of artificial intelligence, figuring out how to teach computer software to make independent decisions with as little programming and neural networking as possible.
Future research will look at how much of this decision-making is in the brain of P. pacificus. That will have implications when it comes to understanding how we make our own decisions.
Even simple systems like worms have different strategies and they can choose which one works best for them.
That gives a framework for understanding how these decisions are made in more complex systems.
Current Biology published the research.
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