NCS-FO: Collaborative Research: Developing Underwater EEG Electrodes for Octopus Research

章鱼是一种社会性动物，具有很高的智力和解决问题的能力，在进化方面与人类非常遥远。 该项目旨在制造神经电传感器和实验协议，以便研究章鱼在水下环境中进行自然行为时的视觉和更高层次的认知过程。这将需要开发新的工程解决方案来制作可以记录水下信号的脑电图（EEG）传感器，从这些高度复杂的记录中去除噪声伪影的新解决方案，以及精心设计可以在虚拟现实环境中研究此类行为的实验。虽然章鱼的大脑与人类的大脑非常不同，但它确实支持定义明确的认知功能。因此，了解章鱼的大脑是否以及如何实现学习，注意力，习惯化和惊喜等过程可以对神经生物学系统如何支持功能产生新的重要理解。 这项研究可能会揭示，章鱼认知功能的神经基质是根据与人类截然不同的原则组织的。它将开发第一个水下EEG，首先测试人类在水下执行任务的有效范例，并对已知波形进行基准测试。电极的构造应使其在盐水中不会腐蚀。它还将开发高质量的虚拟现实刺激，可以影响章鱼在水下环境中的行为。它将利用EEG频率标记技术来确定章鱼对环境刺激的处理。这将允许研究章鱼是否呈现类似于惊讶、适应、工作记忆和注意力效应（在灵长类动物和其他脊椎动物中）的特征反应。这项研究还将回答章鱼如何以及以何种方式睡觉。所有数据、工件和建模软件都将公开提供，并构成社区的重要资源。这项研究的结果可能会影响我们对大脑如何支持复杂认知功能的一般理解，与人工智能工作直接相关。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The octopus is a social animal, with high intelligence and problem-solving skills, that is very distant from humans in terms of its evolution. This project aims to fabricate neuroelectric sensors and experimental protocols that would enable studying visual and higher level cognitive processes in the octopus while they are engaged in natural behaviors in an underwater environment. This will necessitate development of new engineering solutions for crafting electroencephalography (EEG) sensors that can record signal underwater, new solutions for removing noise artifacts from these highly complicated recordings, as well as careful design of experiments that could study such behaviors in a virtual-reality environment. While the brain of the octopus is very different from that of the human, it does support well-defined cognitive functions. Therefore, understanding whether and how octopuses' brains implement processes such as learning, attention, habituation, and surprise can produce new and important understandings of how neurobiological systems can support function. This research might reveal that the neural substrates of cognitive function in the octopus are organized according to principles that differ drastically from those found in in humans.This EAGER project has several aims. It will develop the first underwater EEG, first testing well-validated paradigms on humans performing task underwater and benchmarking against known waveforms. The electrodes will be constructed so that they do not corrode in salt water. It will also develop high-quality virtual reality stimulation that could impact octopuses' behavior in an underwater environment. It will utilize EEG frequency-tagging techniques to determine processing of environmental stimulus by the octopus. This will allow studying whether octopuses present characteristic responses that are analogous to surprise, adaptation, working memory and attention effects (in primates and other vertebrates). The study will also allow answering how and in what manner do octopuses sleep. All data, artifacts and modeling software will be made publicly available and constitute an important resource for the community. The results of this study could impact our general understanding of how brains support complex cognitive functions, with direct relevance to artificial intelligence efforts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.