Computer simulation of neuronal signals controlling the pharyngeal pumping motion in

線虫の咽頭ポンピング運動を制御する神経シグナルのシミュレーション

服部 佑哉; 鈴木 芳代; 辻 敏夫*; 小林 泰彦

Hattori, Yuya; Suzuki, Michiyo; Tsuji, Toshio*; Kobayashi, Yasuhiko

We proposed a simulation-based approach to estimate the control mechanisms involved in pharyngeal pumping motion in . To conduct the simulations, we previously developed a pharyngeal muscle model including 20 muscular cells and 9 marginal cells. Output in each cell was represented by the membrane potential based on FitzHugh-Nagumo equations. These cells were connected by gap junctions based on the real connection structure of the pharyngeal muscle. The gap junctions transmitted the outputs among the cells. The EPG was used to measure the biological signals from pharyngeal pumping, and the model represented the EPG using the outputs of individual cells. To estimate the signal patterns of certain neurons involved in rhythm control, we virtually input various electrical signals as neuronal signals to muscular cells in the model, and calculated the EPG based on outputs of individual membrane potential models. It was found that some signal patterns induced the EPG, which was similar to what was observed in wild-type . The cycle length of the EPG was synchronized with that of neuronal signals. These results suggest that the neuronal signal could control the rhythm of the pumping motion. Our approach shows potential for elucidating important signal factors (e.g., amplitude and cycle length) involved in the control of the pumping motion.