Research article
Search for computational modules in the C. elegans brain
1 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA
2 Department of Molecular Cell Biology and Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
BMC Biology 2004, 2:25 doi:10.1186/1741-7007-2-25
Published: 2 December 2004Abstract
Background
Does the C. elegans nervous system contain multi-neuron computational modules that perform stereotypical functions? We attempt to answer this question by searching for recurring multi-neuron inter-connectivity patterns in the C. elegans nervous system's wiring diagram.
Results
Our statistical analysis reveals that some inter-connectivity patterns containing two, three and four (but not five) neurons are significantly over-represented relative to the expectations based on the statistics of smaller inter-connectivity patterns.
Conclusions
Over-represented patterns (or motifs) are candidates for computational modules that may perform stereotypical functions in the C. elegans nervous system. These modules may appear in other species and need to be investigated further.
