WOrM Podcast: Whole Organism Analytics 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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Episoder(53)

EPISODE 53: Worms on Pause

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EPISODE 52: Worms in Space: Microbiomes in a Capsule

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EPISODE 51: The Worm Behind the Wild

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22 Jul 16min

EPISODE 50: Fed by Mum, Built by Ribosomes

Welcome to the next episode of the WOrM Podcast 🪱Today we’re talking about inheritance.Not DNA.Not small RNAs.Not epigenetics.But ribosomes.⸻🧬 The central ideaWhen mother worms experience dietary re...

15 Jul 20min

EPISODE 49: Glowing up the Worm Proteome

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EPISODE 48: Murder Mode: How a Worm Evolved the Urge to Kill

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6 Mai 14min

EPISODE 47: When Bacteria Fight Back: Bioplastic Kills the Worm

Welcome to the next episode of the WOrM Podcast 🪱Today we’re talking about something unexpected.A bioplastic — something we usually think of as sustainable, useful, even beneficial —can kill a worm.⸻...

29 Apr 21min

EPISODE 46: Turning in Time: Neural Sequences in the Worm Brain

Welcome to the next episode of the WOrM Podcast 🪱Today we’re looking at something deceptively simple: a turn.But not just that a worm turns —how the brain decides to do it.⸻🧬 The central ideaTurning...

22 Apr 19min