CAREER: Infomechanics - The interdependence of animal information acquisition and mechanics

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).While the nervous system operates with information, the mechanics of the body and the environment in which it is embedded constitute a world of forces. Work on the mechanics of the body and on the nervous system is rarely undertaken in a joint fashion, in part because of the difficulty of comparing these quantities. A theoretical umbrella under which neural information acquisition can be related to mechanics is currently lacking; there is no science of infomechanics. This project will use the model system of weakly electric fish to push forward an understanding of the linkages between obtaining sensory information and movement mechanics. It has recently been shown that, unlike most forward-biased animals which sense objects ahead better than in other directions, electric fish are able to sense in all directions. Complementing this unique sensory capacity is a motor system which allows them reach locations all around the body quickly. The very high degree of coupling between sensation and movement in these animals makes them ideal for elucidating the principles connecting mechanics to sensory processing. The kinematics and dynamics of this unique motor system will be studied through use of a highly stereotyped refuge-tracking behavior and work on an advanced electric fish robot. The neural basis of sensory-guided movement will be examined through a study of the encoding of locomotor signals in the brain. Finally, a robotic model of a closed-loop sensory tracking behavior present in fish will be used to test hypotheses of how the processing of object features is connected with movement control. This work will result in the training of one postdoctoral associate and several graduate students in interdisciplinary research spanning behavior, neurobiology, robotics, and fluid dynamics.