# Long-range correlations and fractal dynamics in C. elegans: changes with aging and stress

## TL;DR

This study demonstrates that C. elegans exhibits long-range correlations and fractal dynamics in its motility, which change with aging and stress, paralleling human physiological patterns and opening new avenues for aging research.

## Contribution

It is the first to show fractal and long-range correlation properties in C. elegans motility, linking these dynamics to aging and stress effects.

## Key findings

- C. elegans displays long-range correlations in motility variables.
- Fractal properties in behavioral shifts are observed.
- Motility dynamics are modulated by aging and temperature stress.

## Abstract

Reduced motor control is one of the most frequent features associated with aging and disease. Nonlinear and fractal analyses have proved to be useful in investigating human physiological alterations with age and disease. Similar findings have not been established for any of the model organisms typically studied by biologists, though. If the physiology of a simpler model organism displays the same characteristics, this fact would open a new research window on the control mechanisms that organisms use to regulate physiological processes during aging and stress. Here, we use a recently introduced animal tracking technology to simultaneously follow tens of Caenorhabdits elegans for several hours and use tools from fractal physiology to quantitatively evaluate the effects of aging and temperature stress on nematode motility. Similarly to human physiological signals, scaling analysis reveals long-range correlations in numerous motility variables, fractal properties in behavioral shifts, and fluctuation dynamics over a wide range of timescales. These properties change as a result of a superposition of age and stress-related adaptive mechanisms that regulate motility.