Highlights•The Caenorhabditis elegans motor circuit has a nearly complete connectome.•
Neurogenetic studies are unveiling a rich and complex set of signaling relationships …

The emerging field of optogenetics allows for optical activation or inhibition of excitable cells.
In 2005, optogenetic proteins were expressed in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans for …

Diverse optogenetic tools have allowed versatile control over neural activity. Many
depolarizing and hyperpolarizing tools have now been developed in multiple laboratories …

Recent efforts in neuroscience research have been aimed at obtaining detailed anatomical
neuronal wiring maps as well as information on how neurons in these networks engage in …

Recent progress in neuroscience has been facilitated by tools for neuronal activation and
inactivation that are orthogonal to endogenous signaling systems. We describe here a …

Neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans and other nematodes have been thought to lack
classical action potentials. Unexpectedly, we observe membrane potential spikes with …

C. elegans neurons were thought to be non-spiking until our recent discovery of action
potentials in the sensory neuron AWA; however, the extent to which the C. elegans nervous …

Random search is a behavioral strategy used by organisms from bacteria to humans to
locate food that is randomly distributed and undetectable at a distance. We investigated this …

Command-like descending neurons can induce many behaviors, such as backward
locomotion, escape, feeding, courtship, egg-laying, or grooming (we define 'command-like …

Neuronal computation is achieved through connections of individual neurons into a larger
network. To expand the repertoire of endogenous cellular communication, we developed a …