Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 25, 2026
07:07
Errors as a Means of Reducing Impulsive Food Choice
Published on: June 5, 2016
7.6K
C. elegans food choice exhibits effort discounting-like behavior
Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|March 31, 2025
Summary
The nematode C. elegans displays effort discounting, devaluing harder-to-consume food. This suggests cost-benefit decision-making extends to invertebrates, with dopamine signaling playing a key role.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Economics
- Neuroscience
- Invertebrate Biology
Background:
- Cost-benefit decisions and discounting behavior are fundamental to economics and animal behavior.
- The evolutionary and phylogenetic scope of discounting behavior is not well understood.
- Effort discounting, a form of cost-benefit analysis, involves devaluing rewards based on associated costs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether the nematode C. elegans exhibits effort discounting behavior.
- To explore the phylogenetic limits of discounting behavior in the animal kingdom.
- To identify potential neural mechanisms underlying effort discounting in C. elegans.
Main Methods:
- Behavioral assays presenting C. elegans with choices between food sources of varying consumption difficulty.
- Economic modeling to analyze worm choices and compare them to established discounting theories.
- Genetic manipulation to assess the role of dopamine signaling in observed discounting behavior.
Main Results:
- C. elegans demonstrates significant devaluation of more difficult-to-consume food options, consistent with effort discounting.
- The observed behavior aligns with predictions from economic models of discounting.
- Disruptions in dopamine signaling pathways significantly altered the worms' discounting behavior.
Conclusions:
- C. elegans serves as a viable invertebrate model for studying discounting behavior.
- This research expands the known phylogenetic range of effort discounting.
- Dopamine signaling is implicated in the neural mechanisms of cost-benefit decision-making in a simple nervous system.
Related Concept Videos
00:48Optimal Foraging
How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.
01:38Cognitive Dissonance
Social psychologists have documented that feeling good about ourselves and maintaining positive self-esteem is a powerful motivator of human behavior (Tavris & Aronson, 2008). In the United States, members of the predominant culture typically think very highly of themselves and view themselves as good people who are above average on many desirable traits (Ehrlinger, Gilovich, & Ross, 2005). Often, our behavior, attitudes, and beliefs are affected when we experience a threat to our...
01:20Taste Buds and Receptors
Gustation, or the sense of taste, is intrinsically linked to the anatomical structures located on the tongue. This organ's surface, along with the entirety of the oral cavity, is adorned with stratified squamous epithelium. Evident on the tongue are elevated structures known as papillae (singular = papilla), which house the mechanisms for the transduction of gustatory stimuli. Four distinct types of papillae exist, each identified by their unique morphological attributes: the circumvallate,...
01:30Regulation of Food Intake
Short-term regulation of food intake primarily involves neural signals from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, blood nutrient levels, and GI tract hormones. Communication between the gut and brain via vagal nerve fibers plays a significant role in evaluating the contents of the gut. Clinical studies have shown that protein ingestion produces a more prolonged response in these nerve fibers compared to an equivalent amount of glucose. Additionally, the activation of stretch receptors caused by GI...
01:29Impression Management Techniques II: Ingratiation
Ingratiation refers to deliberate behaviors aimed at increasing one’s attractiveness or likability to a target person, often for strategic interpersonal or social gain. This set of impression management tactics is especially prevalent in hierarchical contexts, where influencing someone with greater power or authority can yield significant benefits. Several distinct ingratiation strategies have been identified, each leveraging psychological cues to foster favor and affiliation.Opinion...
01:26Methods of Controlling Food Spoilage
Food spoilage is caused by microbial growth or by chemical and physical changes, all of which affect the taste, texture, and safety of food.Temperature-Based PreservationRefrigeration at 0–4 °C slows microbial growth and enzyme activity, making it ideal for short-term storage. However, certain spoilage organisms—such as psychrotrophs like Listeria monocytogenes—can still proliferate at these temperatures. Freezing below -18 °C further slows biological processes by forming ice crystals, which...