The larger research program of the Zimmer lab encompasses the questions of how complex neural networks compute sensory information in order to generate behavioral decisions, how the animal’s behaviors are represented in the brain and how they are finally transformed into motor patterns. Moreover, we study how these representations are modulated on longer time scales during different brain states, such as hunger/satiety and sleep/wakefulness. The approaches used in our lab include C. elegans genetics, whole brain calcium imaging, single neuron calcium imaging in freely moving worms, quantitative behavioral analysis and computational neurosciences. Our lab focuses on locomotion and oxygen and carbon dioxide chemotaxis as the main behavioral paradigms.