A Computational Model Based on Multi-Regional Calcium Imaging Represents the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics in a Caenorhabditis elegans Sensory Neuron.

Due to the huge number of neuronal cells in the brain and their complex circuit formation, computer simulation of neuronal activity is indispensable to understanding whole brain dynamics. Recently, various computational models have been developed based on whole-brain calcium imaging data. However, these analyses monitor only the activity of neuronal cell bodies and treat the cells as point unit. This point-neuron model is inexpensive in computational costs, but the model is unrealistically simplistic at representing intact neural activities in the brain. Here, we describe a novel three-unit Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) model based on the neuronal responses derived from a Caenorhabditis elegans salt-sensing neuron. We recorded calcium responses in three regions of the ASER neuron using a simple downstep of NaCl concentration. Our simple ODE model generated from a single recording can adequately reproduce and predict the temporal responses of each part of the neuron to various types of NaCl concentration changes. Our strategy which combines a simple recording data and an ODE mathematical model may be extended to realistically understand whole brain dynamics by computational simulation.