Functional Organization of a Continuously Growing Compound Nose

该项目旨在了解神经系统是如何组织的，以使动物能够感知它们的气味世界并做出适当的反应。这项工作中使用的动物模型是多刺龙虾，该系统是其化学感受系统-嗅觉器官，称为“触角”或“鼻子”）。 棘龙虾是理想的动物模型，因为它的嗅觉非常发达，在许多层面上都得到了很好的研究，从而为我们提供了一个知识框架，可以从这个框架中提出关于感觉处理的更高层次的问题。为了了解这个系统的功能组织，不仅需要了解成年人的组织模式，而且在生长和发育过程中这种模式是如何建立和维持的。因此，我们项目的第一个主要目标是比较成年动物嗅觉器官的几个不同组成部分的中枢连接和行为作用-每个通路在嗅觉辨别和定向任务中的作用是什么，以及这些作用如何与它们的外周和中枢神经组织相关。第二个主要目的是了解嗅觉器官如何在动物的一生中保持其功能组织，即使存在嗅觉细胞的出生、成熟和死亡的连续过程。这一目标将回答与细胞，分子和生理方法的发展。这些研究将产生的动态性质的化学感觉系统和控制嗅觉处理的发展因素的理解。最后，它将导致一个比较的观点神经解决感官处理的基本问题。

This project is to understand how nervous systems are organized to allow animals to perceive their odor worlds and to respond appropriately. The animal model to be used in this work is the spiny lobster, and the system is its chemosensory system -- the olfactory organ, called the 'antennule' or 'nose'). The spiny lobster is ideal as an animal model because its sense of smell is very well developed and has been well studied at many levels, thus providing us with an intellectual framework from which to ask higher-order questions about sensory processing.To understand the functional organization of this system, it is necessary to understand not only the adult pattern of organization, but also how during growth and development this pattern is established and maintained. So, the first major aim of our project is to compare the central connections and behavioral roles of the several distinct components of the olfactory organ of adult animals - what is the role of each pathway in olfactory discrimination and orientation tasks, and how are these roles related to their peripheral and central neural organization. Behavioral and anatomical techniques will be used to answer this question.The second major aim is to understand how this olfactory organ maintains its functional organization throughout the animal's life, even while there is a continuous process of birth, maturation, and death of olfactory cells. This aim will be answered with cellular, molecular, and physiological approaches to development. These studies will generate an understanding of the dynamic nature of this chemosensory system and of the developmental factors that control olfactory processing. In the end, it will lead to a comparative view of neural solutions to fundamental problems of sensory processing.