Humans and animals are determined based on external information.Decision making based on this information is defined as selecting only one action from changing stimulus information.So far, the brain mechanism of decision-making has been studied mainly in monkeys and mice, and it has been clarified that nerve cells accumulate information and make decisions.However, the gene for that purpose has not been identified, and the detailed mechanism has not been clarified.

　First, the research team discovered that when nematodes escape from the disliked odorant 2-nonanone, they escape in the right direction compared to other stimuli.We investigated the relationship between this odor, neural activity, and behavior.

　As a result, the nerve cells that sense the increase in odor concentration detect the increase in concentration by differentiation, and at that time, the nematodes immediately start to reverse or change direction.On the contrary, the nerve cells that sense the decrease in odor concentration performed an integral by accumulating the decrease in concentration for a certain period of time, and when this value reached a certain value, the nematodes escaped in that direction.

　Furthermore, during integration, the influx of calcium into the cell is carried out through only one type of calcium passage protein, so that the stimulus is accumulated as cell activity, and during differentiation, many calcium passage proteins are opened. I quickly discovered that the calcium concentration was rising.

　The researchers say that the genes that enable these calcium channels are also present in humans, so they may also be involved in human decision-making.

Paper information: [eLife] Calcium dynamics regulating the timing of decision-making in C. elegans