Collaborative Research: RUI: Neural mechanisms for a cooperative behavior

合作研究：RUI：合作行为的神经机制

• 批准号: 1146792
• 负责人: Melissa Coleman
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Claremont McKenna College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-04-01 至 2017-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1146792&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; RUI; Neural; mechanisms

How do animals, including humans, cooperate? Cooperative behaviors often involve extraordinary precision for success. Consider, for example, the level of coordination and control that is necessary for an Olympic couples' figure skating. The goal of the project is to understand how the brains of two or more individual animals integrate sensory cues to modulate an animal's motor systems to achieve these sorts of remarkable performances. The investigators will study a well-suited animal model system, the plain-tailed wren, which produces a cooperative duet song that is unusually amenable to behavioral and neurophysiological experiments. The investigators will travel to the natural habitats of these birds in the Andes Mountains and work with undergraduates and under-represented students from the United States and Ecuador. These students will be trained to conduct the technically complex experiments, which involve the analysis of brain activity of single neurons. The project will also develop research infrastructure in Ecuador, which will be used in teaching efforts for students from the United States and other countries, and in monitoring of animal activity in unique Andean habitats. These experiments will elucidate the specific neural mechanisms and computations that are used in the coordination of vocal behavior between individual wrens. Because birds and other vertebrate animals (including humans) use nearly identical neural structures and mechanisms, these data will have implications that are relevant across animal species. The work will also include the construction of mathematical models that capture the findings, which will facilitate the translation of insights from the brains of these unique animals to the study of other species and into engineering principles and applications.

包括人类在内的动物如何合作？合作行为往往需要非常精确的成功。例如，考虑一下奥运会双人花样滑冰所需的协调和控制水平。该项目的目标是了解两个或多个动物个体的大脑如何整合感官线索来调节动物的运动系统，以实现这些非凡的表现。研究人员将研究一个非常适合的动物模型系统，平尾鹪鹩，它产生一个合作的二重唱歌曲，这是不寻常的服从行为和神经生理学实验。研究人员将前往这些鸟类在安第斯山脉的自然栖息地，与来自美国和厄瓜多尔的本科生和代表性不足的学生一起工作。这些学生将接受培训，进行技术复杂的实验，其中涉及单个神经元的大脑活动的分析。该项目还将在厄瓜多尔发展研究基础设施，用于美国和其他国家学生的教学工作，并用于监测安第斯独特生境中的动物活动。这些实验将阐明用于协调个体弗伦斯之间发声行为的特定神经机制和计算。由于鸟类和其他脊椎动物（包括人类）使用几乎相同的神经结构和机制，这些数据将具有跨动物物种的相关意义。这项工作还将包括构建数学模型来捕捉这些发现，这将有助于将这些独特动物大脑的见解转化为其他物种的研究，并转化为工程原理和应用。