Context-dependent modulation reconfigures interactive sensory-mediated microcircuits in Caenorhabditis elegans.

•Sensory neurons are polymodal and extensively interconnected.•Neuromodulators mediate feedback loops and crosstalk among synaptic partners.•Local/humoral monoaminergic signaling facilitates long-term, system-wide modulation.•Extrasynaptic monoaminergic modulation is focused by synaptic peptidergic signaling.•Neuromodulators ‘functionally reconfigure’ anatomically defined microcircuits.