CAREER: Mammalian Models for Teaching and Research in Neuroethology

通过探索具有特别发达的感官的动物物种，在理解神经系统功能方面取得了重要进展。 这个关于一些高度专业化的小型哺乳动物物种的神经生物学和行为的项目旨在揭示神经系统组织，功能和可塑性的一般原则。 星鼻鼹鼠在它们华丽的鼻子里有一种特殊的触觉，包括机械感觉器官，用于根据几乎显微镜下的纹理进行快速辨别。 觅食行为的分析，猎物的选择和大脑专业化的高分辨率和高速触觉结合机械感受器功能的计算机模拟和触摸信息在新皮层的并行处理的调查。 类似的神经行为学比较方法将利用裸鼹鼠，在哺乳动物中是独一无二的，像一些社会性昆虫一样有种姓制度，包括较小的工蚁和较大的蚁后，来研究自然发生的成年大脑可塑性，这种可塑性可能伴随着工蚁到蚁后的身体转变。 最后，象鼩有一个专门的嗅觉系统，可能提供新的见解嗅觉定位在哺乳动物。 这些比较研究对教学特别有价值，因为这些问题使研究人员和学生经历了一段发现之旅，从一个极端的自然环境中的动物到另一个极端的单细胞的解剖学和生理学。 结果将在神经生物学的许多层面产生影响，以及在动物行为和自然历史中。 作为一个职业项目，这项工作结合了各种学科的方法和研究生和本科生的机会，包括实验室和实地工作，还涉及本科课程的开发和公共宣传。

Important advances in understanding nervous-system function have been made by exploring animal species with particularly well-developed senses. This project on the neurobiology and behavior of some highly specialized small-mammal species aims to reveal general principles of nervous-system organization, function, and plasticity. Star-nosed moles have an exceptional sense of touch in their ornate noses, including mechanosensory organs that are used to make rapid discriminations based on nearly microscopic textures. Analyses of foraging behavior, prey selection and brain specializations for high-resolution and high-speed tactile sensations are done in combination with computer simulations of mechanoreceptor function and investigation of parallel processing of touch information in the neocortex. Similar comparative approaches to neuroethology will utilize naked mole-rats, unique among mammals in having a caste system like some social insects, including smaller workers and larger queens, to study naturally occurring adult brain plasticity that may accompany the physical transformation of workers to queens. Finally, elephant shrews have a specialized olfactory system that may provide novel insights about olfactory localization in mammals. These comparative studies are particularly valuable for teaching because the questions take the investigators and students through a journey of discovery that ranges from the animal in its natural environment at one extreme to the anatomy and physiology of single cells at the other. Results will have an impact throughout many levels of neurobiology, as well as in animal behavior and natural history. As a CAREER project, this work incorporates a variety of disciplinary approaches and opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students, including laboratory and field work, and also involves undergraduate course development and public outreach.