IDR: Olfactory processing of flow and odor structure within a turbulent plume

0933034雷登巴赫许多陆生和水生生物利用它们的嗅觉来定位食物，识别配偶，并通过追踪湍流羽流中分散的气味来寻找合适的栖息地。化学羽流的测量结果表明，气味浓度是丝状的和瞬时的空间和时间结构的羽流很大程度上取决于湍流风或水流场。这些气味信号由在羽流中航行的动物的嗅觉器官采样，并推测提供关于气味源位置的信息。化学检测和跟踪行为不仅在生态学上很重要，而且还可以为人工传感器的设计提供见解。许多动物（昆虫、甲壳类动物等）使用含有成排的化学和/或化学机械感器（感觉器）的附属物（触角或触角）主动地对充满气味的流体进行采样。克氏原螯虾将作为一个模型系统，用于详细分析流场效应和气味暴露对神经反应的影响。粒子成像测速（PIV）和平面激光诱导荧光（PLIF）相结合的系统将同时测量大规模羽流内的流体结构和气味浓度，在11米长的循环水槽内创建。然后，这些信息将有助于在一个专门设计的微流室内再现触角周围的详细流动和气味动力学以及个体的美感。大脑神经元对气味的电反应被限制在沿着触角传感器阵列的不同区域，这将决定空间和时间动态如何调节气味输入的中央处理，以及对触角的一个区域的流体动力学输入在多大程度上可以修改对在单独位置检测到的气味的中央反应。容易获得的机械和气味检测感器，并能够保持触角脑准备活着几个小时，在监测过程中，使这种动物的理想电生理研究的嗅觉处理。这项工作将支持理论和数值分析，以及缩放模型实验，以确定如何轻弹运动学和触角形态影响对流扩散运输，和物理化学捕获的气味小龙虾触角。具有光流测量技术，实验和计算流体力学以及感觉和单细胞神经生理学专业知识的跨学科团队将研究化学羽流结构与生活在水生和陆地环境中的所有动物的感觉生态学之间的复杂相互作用。在这项研究期间，PI将组织一个关于生物学和工程学中的传感器和传感的国际研讨会，将结果整合到由co-PI教授的研究生和本科课程中，并整合到UVa现有的NSF资助的教育计划中，旨在使用特别设计的工程教学工具包（ETK）向中学儿童介绍科学和工程概念和原则。最后，PI将开发一个智力可及的，基于传感器的ETK与跨学科的高年级团队，针对女性，少数民族和弱势儿童。这项研究是由BIO董事会共同资助。

0933034ReidenbachMany terrestrial and aquatic organisms use their sense of smell to locate food, identify mates, and find suitable habitats by tracking odors dispersed within a turbulent plume. Measurements of chemical plumes show that odorant concentrations are filamentous and the instantaneous spatial and temporal structure of a plume greatly depends upon the turbulent wind or water flow field. These odor signals are sampled by the olfactory organs of animals navigating in a plume and presumably provide information about the odor source location. Chemical detection and tracking behavior is not only important ecologically, but can also provide insight into the design of artificial sensors. Many animals (insects, crustaceans, etc.) actively sample odor-laden fluid using appendages (antennae or antennules) that contain rows of chemo- and/or chemo-mechano sensilla (aesthetascs). The crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, will act as a model system for the detailed analysis of flow field effects and odorant exposure on neural responses. A combined particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) and planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) system will measure simultaneous fluid structure and odor concentrations within a large scale plume, created within an 11 m long recirculating flume. This information will then aid recreation of the detailed flow and odor dynamics surrounding an antennule and individual aesthetascs within a specially designed micro-flow chamber. Electrical responses of brain neurons to odors restricted to different regions along the antennule sensor array will determine how spatial and temporal dynamics may regulate central processing of odor input, and the extent to which hydrodynamic inputs to one region of the antennule may modify the central response to odors detected at a separate location. The ease of access to the mechano- and odor-detecting sensilla, and the ability to keep the antennule-brain preparation alive for many hours during monitoring, make this animal ideal for electrophysiological investigation of olfactory processing. This work will be supported by theoretical and numerical analysis, as well as scaled model experiments to determine how flicking kinematics and antennule morphology affect convective-diffusive transport, and physical-chemical capture of odors by crayfish antennules. The interdisciplinary team with expertise in optical flow measurement techniques, experimental and computational fluid mechanics and sensory and single-cell neurophysiology will study the complex interaction between chemical plume structure and sensory ecology of all animals living in aquatic and terrestrial environments. During this study the PIs will organize an international symposium on Sensors and Sensing in Biology and Engineering, integrating the results into graduate and undergraduate courses taught by the co-PIs and to an existing NSF-funded education initiative at UVa aimed at introducing science and engineering concepts and principles to children in the middle schools using especially designed Engineering Teaching Kits (ETK). Finally, the PIs will develop an intellectually accessible, sensors-based ETK with an interdisciplinary senior year team, aimed at female, minority and disadvantaged children.This research is cofunded by the BIO Directorate.