ABSTRACT
In the principal source of neuroanatomic data tabulated in this atlas, J.G. White and his associates, Southgate, Thomson, and Brenner write, “The availability of the complete connectivity data for a nervous system generates an almost irresistible desire to speculate extensively on the functions of such a structure. Presumably, in lower organisms like C. elegans, the routing is primarily a consequence of epigenetic mechanisms and non-trophic factors. All the ganglia are interconnected, and the nervous system is all in one piece. C. elegans seems to be too small to attract the study of its nervous system by electrophysiological methods. Random distribution of synaptic connections, however, does not conform to the general pattern in nervous systems capsulized in the Dale-Feldberg rule.
