Simulating C. elegans brain, body and environment interactions

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43588-024-00738-w

by lamename • 2 years ago

68 19 2 years ago

ruthmarx4• 2 years ago

I have this simulation on my computer, it's really interesting to see. Limited inputs, and the same neurons light up every time for the same input.

These animals are 'conscious' yet not capable of any kind of higher thought, basically just a early type of organic robot. Fascinating.

dsjoerg• 2 years ago

Openworm looks interesting but also looks dead so.

Palomides• 2 years ago

my bystander understanding: the problem is that openworm knows how the neurons are connected, but not how they're weighted and trigger each other, or how it adjusts them, and it seems like there hasn't been enough funding to take it to the next level in the past, like, 15 years

it's unclear to me how much of the result from this paper is algorithmic rather than directly founded in measured data, but it's very cool to see more work in this area.

verteu• 2 years ago

They claim their simulation moves in a "zigzag" pattern that's qualitatively similar to the real animal:

During locomotion, the input of sensory neurons exhibited fluctuations due to the zigzag movement of the body’s head (Fig. 5c). The membrane potentials of each individual motor neuron also oscillated in response to the sensory input, especially the head motor neurons (Fig. 5d). The activation of muscle cells revealed traveling waves from the head to the tail (Supplementary Fig. 4), accompanied by alternating contractions and relaxations of dorsal and ventral muscle cells (Fig. 5e). These findings resemble observations in biological experiments

cyberax3• 2 years ago

I remember reading a blog post saying that C. elegans is not a good example of neural networks, for the same reason demoscene is not a good example of computer programming. C. elegans connectome was tweaked and optimized by evolution to be as compact as possible.

So just like with demoscene, untangling and simulating it will require deep knowledge of the underlying "physical" platform. More complex organisms might actually be _easier_ to simulate.

ruthmarx4• 2 years ago

C. elegans connectome was tweaked and optimized by evolution to be as compact as possible.

It's not like it's compressed or optimized or anything, it's just incredibly simple.

pests• 2 years ago

The open worm can die too!?

fnordpiglet• 2 years ago

https://github.com/Jessie940611/BAAIWorm

xt00• 2 years ago

Reminds me of "Devs": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEfyT3vLD2c

exe34• 2 years ago

loved that show! my favourite part is their dead eyes, knowing everything that is going to happen takes away all the joy and pain out of life, it's exactly like depression!

sitkack• 2 years ago

The worm has entered the multiverse.

Simulating C. elegans brain, body and environment interactions

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