The Worm Podcast9 Jul 2025

EPISODE 21: Beyond the Wires – Worm Brains Reveal Hidden Neural Connections

In this episode, we go beyond the famous C. elegans connectome to explore how signal propagation doesn’t always follow the wires. Using powerful whole-brain calcium imaging combined with single-cell optogenetic activation, researchers mapped over 23,000 neuron pairings to build a functional atlas that rewrites parts of the worm’s wiring diagram.

We dive into:

How extrasynaptic neuropeptide signalling connects neurons outside synapses
The discovery of functional connections invisible in the wiring diagram
How C. elegans neural signals propagate both directly and indirectly
The creation of a functional connectome that predicts spontaneous activity better than anatomy alone
The surprising flexibility and plasticity of even simple nervous systems

📖 Based on the research article:

“Neural signal propagation atlas of Caenorhabditis elegans”

Francesco Randi, Anuj K. Sharma, Sophie Dvali & Andrew M. Leifer

Published in Nature (2023).

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06683-4

🎧 Subscribe to the WOrM Podcast for more full-organism neuroscience that goes deeper than the wires!

This podcast is generated with artificial intelligence and curated by Veeren. If you’d like your publication featured on the show, please get in touch.

📩 More info:

🔗 ⁠⁠www.veerenchauhan.com⁠⁠

📧 veeren.chauhan@nottingham.ac.uk

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