State-switching navigation strategies in<i>C. elegans</i>are beneficial for chemotaxis.

ABSTRACT: Animals employ different strategies for relating sensory input to behavioral output to navigate sensory environments, but what strategy to use, when to switch and why remain unclear. In C. elegans, navigation is composed of "steering" and "turns", corresponding to small heading changes and large reorientation events, respectively. It is unclear whether transitions between these elements are driven solely by sensory input or are influenced by internal states that persist over time. It also remains unknown how worms accomplish seemingly surprising feats of navigation- for example, worms appear to exit turns correctly oriented toward a goal, despite their presumed lack of spatial awareness during the turn. Here, we resolve these questions using detailed measurements of sensory-guided n

SUBMITTER: Chen KS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12324552 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature