Worm Brain Simulator

3. C. elegans Biology

The C. elegans is one of the most studied animals in science.

The C. elegans worm has approximately 1000 cells that make up the entire organism and is one of the most studied animals in science. 302 of those cells are neurons. Neurons come in basically three types: Sensory, Interneuron, and Motor. Sensory neurons are stimulated when conditions in the worm’s environment changes. These include touch, chemical, odor, pain, osmotic, oxygen changes, temperature and mechanical changes such as body pressure. Interneurons connect the sensory and motor neurons and might be thought of as a proto-brain of sorts. Motor neurons connect to the body muscles that are on either side of the worm body.