Researchers at the University of Oregon are attempting to track the genes that control how humans act as consumers. However, the study has a long road ahead. In fact, the main subjects of current experiments are not people, but microscopic nematodes, called Caenorhabditis elegans. Scientists hope that by mapping the decision making of these worms they can pinpoint the gene responsible for economic choices.
Shawn Lockery, a professor of biology at the University of Oregon and the project’s principal investigator, hopes the project will help scientists understand the human brain better. Because of the complexity of the human decision making process, the study cannot immediately start with people.
Besides being complex, humans are considered irrational consumers in economic terms. When repeatedly given choices between two products, people often choose options that, in the long run, show no logical preference economically. This makes studying the genes responsible very difficult.
That’s where the worms come in. The worm being studied, C. elegans, has only 302 neurons that control its entire body and thought process, compared to the 100 billion thought to be in the human brain. The worm has “one of the smallest brains known to science,” said Lockery. Since C elegans’ nervous systems are so simple, it has been completely mapped out.
The basic process of the experiment involves locking worms into a device developed by Lockery Labs and giving them two food options, one mediocre and one good in terms of nutritional value. Researchers then change the cost of each food for the worm. Cost for C. elegans comes in the form of energy it takes to consume the food. By charting the worm’s food choices at different costs, researchers can determine whether the worm is acting rationally. These behavioral experiments “allow you to treat the worm like a consumer,” Lockery said.
Lockery’s lab has found that a normal worm, without any genetic manipulation, behaves more rationally than a human. Now the lab is attempting to pinpoint the gene responsible.
This process involves inhibiting, or turning off, different neurons until the one responsible for decision making is found. The researchers are looking for a gene that, when inhibited, affects the worm’s choices, but doesn’t affect its individual responses to food. This phase of the project is in progress. Lockery Labs is currently building equipment to test thousands of worms a day to find this gene.
The hope is that once the gene is found in C. elegans its counterpart can be located in humans. “Roughly speaking,” said Lockery, “half the genes in C. elegans have a counterpart in humans that do essentially the same thing.”
Once the gene is located in humans, Lockery believes it will help us understand more about our own thought processes, and will aid in the treatment of neurological diseases. Diseases like Alzheimer’s often affect the decision making process. The discovery of behavior related genes puts scientists one step closer to untangling the complex web that is the irrational human mind.
“I enjoy it when science shows how humans aren’t that special,” said Abe Katzen, referring to the superior economic rationality C. elegans has over humans. Katzen is a biology graduate student in UO’s Institute of Neuroscience and a researcher on the project.
Lockery Labs hopes to publish many papers over the next several years as their research progresses. Lockery thinks they are about half way through the data collection for their first paper. He believes the project, once completed, will provide new insights into the process of animal and human behavior.
