Fig. 1
From: Serotonin promotes exploitation in complex environments by accelerating decision-making
The slowdown of C. elegans upon encountering novel food is abrupt. a Typical trajectories of multiple tracked animals approaching a large bacterial lawn (light grey area). b The center of mass speed of tracked animals aligned to the time of encountering the edge of the bacterial lawn, t = 0 (mean ± standard error of mean; SEM, N = 288 animals). The mean deceleration during the 30-sec period that immediately preceded the encounter was 0.66 ± 0.04 μm/sec2 (double asterisks denote that it was significantly different from zero as determined by a t-test, P <0.01) with the edge of the bacterial lawn. Inset: the center of mass speed on food during intermediate and long times post-encounter. The mean speed at t = 1,100–1,200 sec was significantly higher than at t = 100–200 sec in agreement with previous reports (as determined by a t-test, asterisk denotes P <0.05)