A Computational Pipeline for the Quantification of Social Interactions Across Development
Little is known about how social behavior changes across different stages of development in animals. The nematode C. elegans offers the opportunity to study the dynamics of social behavior via its short 2.5 days of development from egg to adulthood. A previously developed imaging system was extended to track the behavior of many pairs of individuals simultaneously throughout their full development time. I developed a computational pipeline to extract social behavioral data and to analyze the effects of different neuromodulatory and mechanosensory deficiencies on long-term inter-individual interactions. Additionally, I quantify temporal patterns of social interactions over days of measurements and how these temporal patterns are affected by neuromodulatory and mechanosensory mutants. I conclude that C. elegans shows complex dynamics of social interaction across development and that both neuromodulation and mechanosensation play a crucial role in controlling inter-individual interaction at specific developmental windows.
zoom link: https://technion.zoom.us/j/314396039
Meeting ID : 314 396 039
