AUTHOR=Thomas Ashleigh , Bates Kathleen , Elchesen Alex , Hartsock Iryna , Lu Hang , Bubenik Peter 

TITLE=Topological Data Analysis of C. elegans Locomotion and Behavior

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence

VOLUME=4

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/artificial-intelligence/articles/10.3389/frai.2021.668395

DOI=10.3389/frai.2021.668395

ISSN=2624-8212

ABSTRACT=<p>We apply topological data analysis to the behavior of <italic>C. elegans</italic>, a widely studied model organism in biology. In particular, we use topology to produce a quantitative summary of complex behavior which may be applied to high-throughput data. Our methods allow us to distinguish and classify videos from various environmental conditions and we analyze the trade-off between accuracy and interpretability. Furthermore, we present a novel technique for visualizing the outputs of our analysis in terms of the input. Specifically, we use representative cycles of persistent homology to produce synthetic videos of stereotypical behaviors.</p>