BRAIN EAGER: Closed Loop Computing in the Brainstem

脑干中的神经元回路位于构成行为和认知处理基础的感觉运动回路的“前端”。它们控制着维持生命的功能，包括呼吸、运动和平衡、嗅探、咀嚼、新生儿的哺乳，以及啮齿动物的摇动。这些回路进一步通过味觉、嗅觉、平衡和触觉驱动活跃的感觉。在这个项目中，PI将划分控制不同运动动作的电路，并展示行为是如何作为这些动作的集合出现的。口面部处理的“前端”回路控制着维持生命的功能，包括呼吸、运动和平衡、嗅探、咀嚼、新生儿的哺乳、啮齿动物的摇动和发声。这些功能，其中一些有共同的肌肉，必须在不影响气道通畅的情况下发生。控制结构是不被理解和不平凡的，它将作为神经系统中任何水平上并发神经元过程的控制和协调的模型。控制理论在神经系统中的应用是由控制论家在20世纪40年代到60年代提出的。由于缺乏实验工具来识别和控制行为背后的电路，这些先见之明的概念受到了阻碍。我们现在有足够的工具来绘制脑干电路，PI将利用工程和物理学的工具来深入了解基本的感觉运动过程。PI方法的技术方面包括引入基于谱系因子和构成蛋白表达的分子工具来识别脑干神经元，以及基于跨突触病毒的跟踪追踪工具来揭示连接。该项目将通过对本科生和研究生的研究型教育，为未来多学科科学家的教育和培训做出贡献。工作的技术方面将通过专业人员及其同事在研究生和研究生暑期学校的参与而广泛传播。

Neuronal circuits in the brainstem are at the "front-end" of sensorimotor loops that underlie behavior and cognitive processing. They control life-sustaining functions that include breathing, movement and balance, sniffing, chewing, suckling in neonates, and, in rodents, whisking. These circuits further drive active sensation through taste, smell, balance, and touch. In this project the PI will delimit the circuits that control different motor actions and show how behaviors emerge as an assembly of these actions.The "front-end" circuits of orofacial processing control life-sustaining functions that include breathing, movement and balance, sniffing, chewing, suckling in neonates, whisking in rodents, and vocalization. The functions, some of which share common muscles, must occur without compromising the patency of the airway. The control structure is not understood and nontrivial and it will serve as a model for the control and coordination of concurrent neuronal processes at any level in the nervous system. The application of control theory to nervous systems was proposed by the Cyberneticists of the 1940s to 1960s. These prescient notions were stymied by a lack of experimental tools to identify and control the circuits that underlie behavior. We now have sufficient tools to map brainstem circuits and the PI will exploit the tools of engineering and physics to gain insight into fundamental sensorimotor processes. The technical aspect of the the PI's approach involves the introduction of molecular tools based on the expression of lineage factors and constitutive proteins to identify brainstem neurons and track tracing tools based on trans-synaptic viruses to reveal connectivity The project will contribute to the education and the training of future multidisciplinary scientists through research-based education of undergraduate and graduate students. Technical aspects of work will be broadly disseminated through the involvement of the PIs and colleagues in graduate and post-graduate summer schools.