RUI: Sensorimotor Transformations in the Withdrawal Reflex

撤退反射中的感觉运动转换这个项目的目标是了解感觉刺激的位置与它在大鼠的尾巴撤退反射中所唤起的反射运动方向之间的关系。先前的研究表明，这种运动是直接远离刺激的，而其他人则认为，这种反应相对独立于感觉刺激的位置。简单地说，精确的刺激将被传递到大鼠尾巴的不同部位，反射撤回反应的方向和大小将被用力传感器记录下来。还将提供多种刺激，以确定两种反应的中央处理如何相互作用。这些研究将通过建立教师学者奖学金机会，大大加强对本科生和未来教师的培训。这些研究的实际结果将允许对上述两种可供选择的假设进行评估，并更广泛地提供有关中枢神经系统如何处理感觉信息的信息。这些信息对于更好地设计人工机器人系统以避免干扰和理解神经系统转换感觉信息的基本规则可能很重要。

Sensorimotor Transformations in the Withdrawal ReflexThe goal of this project is to understand how the location of a sensory stimulus relates to the direction of reflex movement that it evokes in the tail withdrawal reflex of the rat. Previous studies have suggested the movement is directed away from the stimulus, while others propose that the response is relatively independent of the location of sensory stimulus. Brief, pinpoint stimuli will be delivered to different parts of the rat tail and the direction and magnitude of the reflex withdrawal response will be recorded using force transducers. Multiple stimuli will also be delivered to determine how the central processing of the two responses interacts. These studies will greatly enhance training of undergraduates and future faculty by establishing a Teacher Scholar Fellowship opportunity. The actual results of these studies will allow evaluation of the two alternative hypotheses described above and more generally provide information on how the central nervous system processes sensory information. This information may be important for better designing artificial robot systems to avoid disturbances and understanding the basic rules by which the nervous system transforms sensory information.