Elucidation of the role of monoamines in C. elegans decision making by reinforcement learning model

今年我完成了我的研究项目，并从博士课程毕业。该项目开发了一种新的方法来数学分析线虫的运动。该方法获取沿蜗杆体角度位置等连续数据，发现前进、后退、转弯等离散运动类别。此外，我还可以通过计算量来衡量蠕虫的运动有多可预测。作为一种应用，这种方法可以更好地用于识别产生不同类型运动障碍的基因突变。它也可以用来理解神经元的活动，研究人员现在开始测量移动蠕虫的整个大脑。最后，我证明了我的方法也适用于行走的人类。

I finished my research project this year and graduated from the PhD course. The project develops a new method to mathematically analyze movement of the roundworm C. elegans. The method takes continuous data such as position of the angles along the worm's body, and discovers discrete motion categories such as forward, backward, turning etc. In addition, I can calculate quantities that allow me to measure how predictable worm's movement is. As an application this method can be better used to identify genetic mutations that produce different kind of movement disorders. It can also be used to understand the activity of neurons that researchers are now starting to measure from the entire brains of moving worms. Finally, I show that my method also generalizes for walking humans.