NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2013

2013 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 1306695
• 负责人: Matthew Green
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Green Matthew H
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-06-01 至 2015-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1306695&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

Neural mechanisms of mobile prey detection during locomotionThe visual world of animals is always in motion. A video camera mounted directly onto the eyeball would record a blur of perpetual movement. Visual motion can signal the presence of behaviorally important objects such as prey or predators, yet each time an animal shifts its gaze or engages in locomotion, the visual surround also moves. How does the brain distinguish between visual motion caused by movement of the eyes, head or body, versus visual motion caused by mobile objects in the environment? To tackle this question, this fellowship will support the development of innovative, virtual reality methods that will be combined with genetic techniques to record the activity of specific circuit elements in the brain of larval zebrafish while they attempt to visually track and capture "virtual" prey items. In zebrafish and many other vertebrates, the ability to capture prey is reliant on a midbrain structure called the optic tectum; however, very little is known about identity or function of neural circuits in the tectum or elsewhere in the brain that function to detect and direct attention towards mobile prey. Although current neural recording techniques require that fish be immobilized, a virtual reality system overcomes this limitation by simulating the motion of the visual world that fish would experience while freely swimming. Critically, a virtual reality system will make it possible to experimentally decouple changes in the sensory surround from motor actions, allowing for a precise dissection of feedback mechanisms between sensory and motor processing in the nervous system.Training goals include learning to implement real-time, closed-loop controllers for visual displays, and learning to use genetic methods for identifying and imaging neurons in zebrafish. This fellowship will also support the development of a human eye-tracking, virtual reality system, to be used in the classroom or in a public venue, such as a museum. This eye-tracking system will allow students or the public to interactively investigate relationships between their movement and their perception of motion.

运动过程中移动猎物检测的神经机制动物的视觉世界总是在运动。直接安装在眼球上的摄像机会记录下持续运动的模糊画面。视觉运动可以表明行为上重要的物体（例如猎物或捕食者）的存在，但每次动物转移目光或进行运动时，视觉周围也会移动。大脑如何区分眼睛、头部或身体运动引起的视觉运动与环境中移动物体引起的视觉运动？为了解决这个问题，该奖学金将支持开发创新的虚拟现实方法，该方法将与遗传技术相结合，记录斑马鱼幼虫大脑中特定电路元件的活动，同时它们试图视觉跟踪和捕获“虚拟”猎物。在斑马鱼和许多其他脊椎动物中，捕获猎物的能力依赖于称为视顶盖的中脑结构。然而，对于顶盖或大脑其他部位的神经回路的身份或功能知之甚少，这些神经回路的功能是检测和引导对移动猎物的注意力。尽管当前的神经记录技术要求鱼保持不动，但虚拟现实系统通过模拟鱼在自由游动时所经历的视觉世界的运动克服了这一限制。至关重要的是，虚拟现实系统将使得通过实验将感觉周围的变化与运动动作解耦成为可能，从而能够精确剖析神经系统中感觉和运动处理之间的反馈机制。训练目标包括学习实现视觉显示的实时闭环控制器，以及学习使用遗传方法来识别和成像斑马鱼的神经元。该奖学金还将支持开发人眼追踪虚拟现实系统，用于教室或博物馆等公共场所。这种眼球追踪系统将允许学生或公众交互式地调查他们的运动和运动感知之间的关系。