Active Visual Depth Perception by Looming

人类和其他动物利用刺激的视觉“隐约可见”来检测刺激在视野深处的距离变化。目前尚不清楚这种视觉线索如何驱动神经信号，从而引导适当的行为反应，如接近或避免这样的刺激。这个项目使用了一种名为Manduca的昆虫，它在飞行中取食时在花朵前面盘旋，作为一种更简单的实验系统。一种结合的方法将行为实验与生理学和建模联系起来，通过实验测试关于哪些视觉线索与指导行为相关的替代假设，作为开发具有真实生物参数的计算模型的基础。研究结果将超越昆虫的视觉，对于理解视觉机制的深度探测和避障，以及开发机器人学中有用的机器视觉和导航系统具有重要意义。该项目还在计算神经科学特别强大的环境中为博士后女性神经行为学家提供了出色的跨学科培训。

Humans and other animals use visual 'looming' of a stimulus to detect change in distance of a stimulus in the depth of the visual field. It is unclear how such visual cues drive neural signals that guide appropriate behavioral responses such as approach or avoidance for such a stimulus. This project uses an insect, the moth Manduca, which hovers in front of flowers while feeding in flight, as a simpler system for experimentation. A combined approach links behavioral experiments to physiology and to modeling, to experimentally test alternative hypotheses about which visual cues are relevant for guiding behavior, as a basis for developing computational models with realistic biological parameters. Results will be important beyond insect vision, for understanding depth detection and obstacle avoidance by visual mechanisms in general, and for developing useful machine vision and guidance systems in robotics. This project also provides excellent cross-disciplinary training of a postdoctoral woman neuroethologist in an exceptionally strong environment for computational neuroscience.