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

大多数动物在湍急的空气或水环境中存活，是可以在复杂的湍流条件下量化气味信号以跟踪和找到气味来源(如食物、配偶等)的活生生的证据。然而，我们的工程知识仍然不能制定简单而有效的测量方法，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排放源。该项目建立在发起人最近对生物体神经生物学进行的令人兴奋的计算模型的基础上，该模型预测，龙虾不仅能够估计气味的浓度，而且能够估计自最后一次遇到气味以来的时间。龙虾通过在一群嗅觉感受器神经元(ON)之间进行整体竞争来实现这一点，这种ON被称为“爆裂ON”。爆破角功能可以计算自上次遇到气味以来的时间，与浓度一起，可以提供到气味来源的距离的测量。这项研究将寻求增加对鸟如何感知气味羽流中测量的气味浓度和间歇性的理解，以及这些信息是如何在龙虾大脑中整合的？S。另一个目标是开发新的基于神经生物学的理论来寻找气味来源，这些气味来源可以在人类工程的自动水下机器人中实施，这些水下机器人能够在湍急的化学烟雾中导航。这项工作的更广泛影响来自于新一代电子鼻在国防和民用应用方面的巨大潜在市场，这些电子鼻用于跟踪自然灾害或人为灾害中的化学品。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等学科的学生进行综合教育和培训提供了极好的资源和外展机会。外展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提供研究机会，促进神经技术创新，并促进创业活动，以创建潜在的未来创业公司。研究将包括化学羽流混合和ORN对龙虾气味的响应的实验室实验，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和互补的专家团队，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，他们的目标非常明确，即理解和利用湍流中的嗅觉场景分析。在这种新的光线下，神经生物学家将了解新的嗅觉感知策略，工程师们可以改进湍流混合的量化，并复制这些感觉策略，以提出能够量化化学羽流扩散的新型生物传感器，并改进对来源的搜索。

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.