Study helps to explain how C. elegans worm turns

Tuesday, April 2, 2013 - 16:30 in Health & Medicine

New research by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School shows at the single cell level how an external stimulus sets off a molecular chain reaction in the transparent roundworm C. elegans, a process in which a single neurotransmitter coordinates and times two separate actions. These findings shed new light on how neurons translate sensory input into actions and may one day pave the way to understanding how misfiring neurons contribute to motor symptoms in neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease. Details of the study were published online by PLOS Biology.

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