Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Significance Animals have evolved mechanisms for gathering information from the environment to make apt decisions. An important example is the regulation of feeding, where animals weigh nutritional value with the associated energetic costs. Many species feed in short bursts interspersed with pauses, yet the function and advantages of this strategy are unknown. We suggest that these bursts are used both to collect food and to gather information. Using quantifiable feeding behavior from Caenorhabditis elegans , we define a model that formalizes this decision process. The model shows that burst feeding is advantageous when information about the expected food is noisy. This conceptualization of feeding behavior suggests optimal feeding strategies in response to conflicting inputs and to fluctuating environments.
Language: English
Subfield: Aging
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: G1478268068, G191847647, G6823374686, Population and Ordering Dynamics in Bacterial Intestinal Infection, G7377391769, The first analysis of the role of serotonin in regulating behavioral quiescence and locomotion of the nematode C. elegans in a state-dependent manner., The Distributed Regulatory Network that Integrates Local and Systemic Signals to Regulate Heat Shock Response
OpenAlex ID: W2742495935