A mutant exhibiting abnormal habituation behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans.
The acquisition and retention of information by the nervous system are major processes of learning. Habituation is a simple learning process that occurs during repeated exposure to harmless stimuli. C. elegans is habituated when repeatedly given mechanical stimuli and recover from the habituation when the stimuli are stopped. A habituation abnormal mutant was isolated and assigned to a new gene hab-1 whose mutation causes slow habituation. The hab-1 mutant phenotype is remarkable at short time interval stimuli. However, hab-1 mutant worms show normal dishabituation. Ablations of neurons constituting the neural circuit for mechanical reflexes did not abolish abnormalities caused by the hab-1 mutation.
Xu
Xizhen
X
Department of Physical Information, Faculty of Medicine, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, Japan.
Sassa
Toshihiro
T
Kunoh
Kiyoshi
K
Hosono
Ryuji
R
D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000235:genetics*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009154:Mutation; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012018:Reflex / Q000502:physiology; D014110:Touch