Neuromuscular Control of Directional Swimming in Cubomedusae

立方水母定向游泳的神经肌肉控制

• 批准号: 0920825
• 负责人: Richard Satterlie
• 金额: $ 40.02万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Wilmington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-15 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0920825&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Neuromuscular; Control; Directional; Swimming; Cubomedusae

Cubozoan jellyfish (box jellyfish) include some of the most venomous animals in the ocean, and their habitat includes nearshore areas in use for human recreation. Recent evidence suggests that two less venomous species of cubomedusae are invading local North Carolina waters in large numbers, just off of popular beaches. Furthermore, these jellyfish belong to an animal group, including corals and anemones, with the simplest and most primitive multicellular nervous systems. Despite this simplicity, these animals have very rich behavioral repertoires and can successfully avoid obstacles, swim toward dim light sources, and respond to brief shadows. These properties underline the importance of understanding the neural control of behavior in this very active group of jellyfish: to better understand how to adapt human recreational activity to the expanding habitat of these venomous animals and to gain insight into the evolution of nervous system function, in general, related to behavioral variability and muscular control. As voracious predators on small fish and crustaceans, their impact on commercially valuable species has yet to be evaluated. Finally, information on the neural control of behavior in cubomedusae may be useful in animal-inspired marine robotics that may be of use in both commercial and military applications. This project will use a combination of electrical recording from neurons and muscles, structural examination of neuromuscular organization, and behavioral observations to describe the rapid and accurate turning abilities in response to both visual and mechanical stimuli, and to describe the strong swimming abilities of the jellyfish.

长毛水母（箱形水母）包括海洋中一些最毒的动物，它们的栖息地包括近岸地区，用于人类娱乐。最近的证据表明，两种毒性较小的cuomedusae物种正在大量入侵北卡罗来纳州当地的水域，就在热门海滩附近。此外，这些水母与珊瑚和海葵一样，属于动物群体，拥有最简单、最原始的多细胞神经系统。尽管如此简单，这些动物有非常丰富的行为技能，可以成功地避开障碍物，向昏暗的光源游去，并对短暂的阴影做出反应。这些特性强调了理解这种非常活跃的水母群的行为的神经控制的重要性：为了更好地理解如何使人类的娱乐活动适应这些有毒动物不断扩大的栖息地，为了深入了解神经系统功能的进化，总的来说，与行为变异性和肌肉控制有关。作为小型鱼类和甲壳类动物的贪婪捕食者，它们对具有商业价值的物种的影响尚未得到评估。最后，关于立方体动物行为的神经控制的信息可能在动物启发的海洋机器人中有用，可能在商业和军事应用中都有用途。本项目将结合神经元和肌肉的电记录、神经肌肉组织的结构检查和行为观察来描述水母在视觉和机械刺激下快速准确的转向能力，并描述水母强大的游泳能力。