Marcu Daniel-Cosmin, Berthold Ephraim Immanuel, Busch Karl Emanuel
Institute for Mind Brain and Behavior, Faculty of Medicine, HMU Health and Medical University Potsdam.
Institute for Mind Brain and Behavior, Faculty of Medicine, HMU Health and Medical University Potsdam;
J Vis Exp. 2025 Jun 17(220). doi: 10.3791/66311.
To adapt their behavior, animals assign valence to sensory information through associative learning, and update this association when environmental conditions change. The behavioral responses of Caenorhabditis elegans to sodium chloride offer a well-defined paradigm for investigating the mechanisms governing associative learning. Exposing worms to specific NaCl levels paired with the presence or absence of food elicits chemotaxis towards or away from this NaCl concentration, respectively. The associative memory is formed within a few hours and can be modified in the same timeframe upon exposing the animals to a different NaCl concentration. Here, we describe how to assay behavioral plasticity and learning based on C. elegans salt chemotaxis. The assay strains are grown in synchronized cohorts until they reach adulthood and are then conditioned for several hours on plates with different NaCl concentrations, either in the presence or absence of food. Animals are then transferred to assay plates that contain regions of low, medium, or high NaCl concentrations and allowed to crawl for 30 min before counting the number of worms in each region. A chemotaxis index is then calculated from the worms' distribution on the plate. The assay can be used to test the effect of a range of factors affecting learning.
为了适应其行为，动物通过联想学习为感官信息赋予效价，并在环境条件变化时更新这种联想。秀丽隐杆线虫对氯化钠的行为反应为研究联想学习的机制提供了一个明确的范例。将线虫暴露于特定的氯化钠水平，并伴有食物的存在或缺失，分别会引发线虫向该氯化钠浓度或远离该浓度的趋化反应。联想记忆在数小时内形成，并且在将动物暴露于不同的氯化钠浓度时，可以在相同的时间范围内被修改。在这里，我们描述了如何基于秀丽隐杆线虫的盐趋化性来测定行为可塑性和学习能力。测定菌株在同步群体中生长直至成年，然后在含有不同氯化钠浓度的平板上，在有或没有食物的情况下培养数小时。然后将动物转移到含有低、中或高氯化钠浓度区域的测定平板上，让它们爬行30分钟，然后计算每个区域中的线虫数量。然后根据线虫在平板上的分布计算趋化指数。该测定可用于测试一系列影响学习的因素的作用。
