> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.wormbrain.info/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.wormbrain.info/explore-wormbrain/02-the-worm/the-302-neurons.md).
# the 302 neurons
Three hundred and two sounds tiny until you remember each cell has a name, a spot in the body, and a job people have poked at for years.
Most come in left and right pairs. AVAL and AVAR are the two AVA cells. People say "AVA" and mean the pair.
## Three jobs
| Kind | Rough job | Examples |
| ------------ | -------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- |
| Sensory | Notice the world | AWA, AWC, ASH, ASE, AFD, nose-touch cells |
| Interneurons | Mix those notices and pick a direction | AIA, AIY, AIB, AVA, AVB, AVE, RIM, RIB |
| Motor | Talk to muscle | Ventral-cord cells that bend the body |
Signal usually runs sensory to interneuron to motor. It is not a single file line. Cells talk sideways. Some talk back. That mess is why we run the whole map instead of three arrows on a slide.
## The command layer
A handful of interneurons decide whether the body goes or stops.
* **AVB** and the forward set: activity here lines up with crawling ahead.
* **AVA** and the reverse set: activity here lines up with backing up.
* **Pause:** neither side wins long enough to count as a step.
In a dish those cells drive muscle. In WormBrain we read the same cells and treat a clean forward win as a buy intent, a clean reverse win as a sell intent, and a muddle as wait. The decoder is on [Senses and motors](file:///3621209/04-lab/senses-and-motors.md).
## 
## The throat has its own twenty
Twenty of the 302 run the pumping pharynx that swallows bacteria. We load them because they are in the table. They do not place orders. The market readout comes from the crawl commands, not the throat.
## What we refuse to pretend
We do not simulate every drop of fluid. We do not grow new cells. We do not add a 303rd neuron called "portfolio manager." If a cell is in the published hermaphrodite list, it is in the run. If it is not, it is not.
---
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