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Fig. 3 | BMC Biology

Fig. 3

From: Serotonin promotes exploitation in complex environments by accelerating decision-making

Fig. 3

Serotonergic signaling promotes exploitation in a complex environment. Wild-type animals and tph-1 mutants were assayed on a square lattice arrangement of 49 micro-patches (see also Additional file 5: Figure S4B). a Frames in which the nose of the animal was on a patch were labeled “encountered”. Frames were labeled “exploited” once, in addition, sub-threshold speed was measured (see Methods). Top, a tph-1 mutant encountering a patch; bottom, a wild-type animal exploiting a patch. b The mean number of micro-patches encountered and exploited during the first 2 hours or the entire duration of each assay. c The mean fraction of time spent on encounters or exploitation during the first 2 hours or the entire duration of each assay. When animals were not encountering or exploiting they were moving (predominantly roaming) off food between the patches. In panels (b, c), the number of animals assayed for each strain is noted in parentheses, error bars depict SEM, means were compared using an ANOVA test corrected post hoc for multiple comparisons using Tukey’s HSD test, and double asterisks denote a significant difference (P <0.01). By both measures, tph-1 mutants were deficient as compared with wild-type. d The percentage of the area exploited during the assay was calculated for each micro-patch that was encountered at least once. (i) A histogram of exploited percentages for all encountered patches. (ii) A histogram of exploited percentages for all exploited patches (excluding patches that were only encountered). (iii) A histogram of exploited percentages for single continuous periods of exploitation (termed “events”). (iv) A histogram of the durations between consecutive encounters. The mutants encountered as many patches as wild-type and did not exploit a smaller area of the patch during a single event. However, once they veer off the patch or fully consume it, tph-1 mutants are deficient in initiating the next exploitation event and thus exhibit lower cumulative exploitation. The distributions were compared to wild-type using the k-sample Anderson–Darling test and double asterisks denote a significant difference (P <0.01)

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