Potential role of a ventral nerve cord central pattern generator in forward and backward locomotion in Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Despite the relative simplicity of C. elegans, its locomotion machinery is not yet well understood. We focus on the generation of dorsoventral body bends. While central pattern generators are commonly involved in animal locomotion, their presence in C. elegans has been questioned due to a lack of an evident neural circuit to support it. We developed a computational model grounded in the available neuroanatomy and neurophysiology and we used an evolutionary algorithm to explore the space of possible configurations of the circuit that matched the neural traces observed during forward and backward locomotion in the worm. Our results demonstrate that it is possible for the rhythmic contraction to be produced by a circuit present in the ventral nerve cord.