Model Checking Tap Withdrawal in C. Elegans

We present what we believe to be the first formal verification of a biologically realistic (nonlinear ODE) model of a neural circuit in a multicellular organism: Tap Withdrawal (TW) in C. Elegans, the common roundworm. TW is a reflexive behavior exhibited by C. Elegans in response to vibrating the surface on which it is moving; the neural circuit underlying this response is the subject of this investigation. Specially, we perform reach-tube-based reachability analysis on the TW circuit model of Wicks et al. (1996) to estimate key model parameters. Underlying our approach is the use of Fan and Mitra’s recently developed technique for automatically computing local discrepancy (convergence and divergence rates) of general nonlinear systems.

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