Publications by authors named "M Vergassola"

Article Synopsis
  • Animals exhibit varied movement strategies based on their internal states and environmental cues, leading to a structured analysis of these behaviors.
  • Markov models are utilized to analyze movement sequences, allowing for a comparative study of behaviors among individual larval zebrafish.
  • The research finds that fish adapt their movement based on sensory stimuli—cruising in light and wandering when searching for food or reacting to threats—while revealing hidden states that influence decision-making beyond what the stimuli alone can explain.
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Microglia are resident brain cells that regulate neuronal development and innate immunity. Microglia activation participates in the cellular response to neuroinflammation, thus representing a possible target for pharmacological strategies aimed to counteract the onset and progression of brain disorders, including depression. Antidepressant drugs have been reported to reduce neuroinflammation by acting also on glial cells.

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Thierry Emonet and Massimo Vergassola discuss what research shows about how animals perform the feat of navigating by smell.

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Animals chain movements into long-lived motor strategies, exhibiting variability across scales that reflects the interplay between internal states and environmental cues. To reveal structure in such variability, we build Markov models of movement sequences that bridges across time scales and enables a quantitative comparison of behavioral phenotypes among individuals. Applied to larval zebrafish responding to diverse sensory cues, we uncover a hierarchy of long-lived motor strategies, dominated by changes in orientation distinguishing cruising versus wandering strategies.

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Animals chain movements into long-lived motor strategies, resulting in variability that ultimately reflects the interplay between internal states and environmental cues. To reveal structure in such variability, we build models that bridges across time scales that enable a quantitative comparison of behavioral phenotypes among individuals. Applied to larval zebrafish exposed to diverse sensory cues, we uncover a hierarchy of long-lived motor strategies, dominated by changes in orientation distinguishing cruising and wandering strategies.

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