Ruben Castro Corral

My research focuses on understanding how sleep influences behavior and neural activity changes in C. elegans to predict sleep markers.

Sleep is crucial for allowing the nervous system to carry out cognitive and motor tasks, yet little is known about the mechanisms that occur during sleep to reinforce these abilities. In my research, I focus on understanding changes in neural activity and behaviors in worms before, during, and after periods of quiescence. To analyze sleep, Day 1 adult worms undergo an odor training paradigm consisting of three 80-minute odor cycles of S Basal (buffer control) or Butanone (innate attractive odor) with two 30-minute food cycles in between. Worms are imaged via confocal microscopy, and behavioral annotations are made to compare behavioral and neuronal activity. While Butanone-trained worms show more quiescent bouts, their bodies are not completely immobile, displaying nose twitches and head bends but a still body. This phenomenon is seen in mammalian animals during periods of REM sleep, where the organism is asleep but shows twitching behaviors. By focusing on the transitions in behavior during quiescent bouts, we can learn about which potential neurons are active during sleep and drive these micro behaviors.