Collaborative Research: NCS-FO: A Computational Neuroscience Framework for Olfactory Scene Analysis within Complex Fluid Environments

大多数动物在湍流的空气或水环境中生存，并且活生生地证明了可以在复杂的湍流条件下量化气味信号，以跟踪和查找气味来源（例如食物、配偶等）。然而，我们的工程知识仍然无法制定简单有效的测量方法，使人造系统能够预测、导航和利用这种湍流的特性来定位化学释放源。该项目建立在提议者最近令人兴奋的生物体神经生物学计算模型的基础上，该模型预测龙虾不仅能够估计气味的浓度，还能够估计自上次遇到气味以来的时间。龙虾通过嗅觉受体神经元 (ORN) 群体（称为“爆发 ORN”）之间的群体竞争来实现这一目标。爆裂 ORN 的功能是计算自上次遇到气味以来的时间，以及浓度，可以提供到气味源的距离的测量。这项研究将寻求加深对 ORN 如何感知气味浓度和在气味羽流中测量的间歇性，以及如何将这些信息整合到龙虾大脑中的理解。另一个目标是开发基于神经生物学的新理论来寻找气味源，这些理论可以在人类设计的自主水下航行器中实现，这些航行器能够在湍流的化学羽流中导航。这项工作的更广泛的影响源于新一代电子鼻在自然或人为灾难中跟踪化学物质的国防和民用应用的巨大潜在市场。通过该项目，还为流体动力学、神经科学、计算机工程和信息处理交叉领域的学生综合教育和培训提供了优质的资源和推广机会。外展活动将通过佛罗里达大学创新脑机接口中心进行协调，将为本科生和研究生研究提供机会，促进神经技术创新，并促进创业活动，以创建未来有潜力的初创公司。该研究将包括化学羽流混合和 ORN 对龙虾遇到气味的反应的实验室实验、搜索优化的理论分析，以及电子鼻的数值模拟和新颖的系统架构。这项研究汇集了一个多学科、互补的专家团队，包括一名流体动力学家、一名神经生物学家和一名电气工程师，其目标非常明确，即理解和利用湍流中的嗅觉场景分析。从这个新角度来看，神经生物学家将了解新的嗅觉传感策略，工程师可以改进湍流混合的量化并复制这些传感策略，以提出能够量化化学羽流分散并改进对来源的搜索的新型仿生传感器。

Most animals survive in turbulent air or water environments and are living proof that it is possible to quantify odor signals in complex turbulent flow conditions to track and find sources of odors (such as food, mates, etc.). However, our engineering knowledge is still incapable of formulating simple and effective measurements that will enable man-made systems to predict, navigate and utilize properties of this turbulent flow to locate sources of chemical release. This project builds on recent exciting computational modeling of the neurobiology of organisms by the proposers, which predict that lobsters are capable of estimating not only the concentration of odors but also the time since the last odor was encountered. Lobsters accomplish this by using ensemble competition across a population of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs), called "bursting ORNs". Bursting ORNs function to compute the time since last encounter of an odor that, along with concentration, can provide a measure of the distance to the odor source. This research will seek to increase understanding of how ORNs perceive odor concentration and intermittency measured within an odor plume, and how this information is integrated within the lobster?s brain. An additional goal is to develop new neurobiology-based theories in the search for odor sources that can be implemented within human-engineered autonomous underwater vehicles that have the ability to navigate in turbulent chemical plumes.The broader implications of this work stem from the large potential market for defense and civilian applications of a new generation of electronic noses for tracking chemicals in natural or man-initiated disasters. Through this project, there are also excellent resources and outreach opportunities for integrated education and training of students at the intersection of fluid dynamics, neuroscience, computer engineering and information processing. Outreach will be coordinated through the Center of Innovative Brain Machine Interfaces at the University of Florida and will provide opportunities for undergraduate and graduate research, promote neurotechnology innovations, and foster entrepreneurship activities in order to create potential future start-up companies.The research will include laboratory experiments of chemical plume mixing and ORN responses to odor encounters by lobsters, theoretical analysis of search optimization, as well as numerical simulations and novel system architecture for electronic noses. This research brings together a multidisciplinary and complementary team of experts, including a fluid dynamicist, a neurobiologist, and an electrical engineer with the very clear goal of understanding and exploiting olfactory scene analysis in turbulent flow. In this new light, neurobiologists will understand new sensing strategies for olfaction, and engineers can improve the quantification of turbulent mixing and replicate these sensory strategies to propose novel bio-inspired sensors capable of quantifying the dispersion of chemical plumes and improve the search for the source.