NeuroNex: Communication, Coordination, and Control in Neuromechanical Systems (C3NS)

尽管动物和它们的行为有明显的差异，但它们都受到相同的限制。所有的动物都使用神经系统来控制它们的运动，这必须遵循物理定律。因此，这个NeuroNex研究网络试图通过研究不同大小和具有独特进化史的动物来了解动物是如何运动的：脊椎动物(老鼠、老鼠和猫)、软体动物(海兔)和昆虫(果蝇)。这些物种之间的差异将揭示物理学和进化是如何塑造神经系统的。了解跨越不同生物体和尺度的运动可能会导致机器人具有更优雅、更协调的运动。此外，该网络通过在实验室之间交换博士后实习生和学生，为他们提供从事不同模式生物工作的机会，并扩大受训人员的教育范围，加强了对美国工程师和科学家的培训。该网络的活动通过与国际跨学科合作者的互动来丰富现有的外展计划，并允许新的、更大的倡议。作为该项目的一部分，公开演示、日营和实习使K-12学生接触到跨学科研究和国际合作者的想法和文化。该网络还在其主要城市的自然科学博物馆建造展品，并开发一个互动网站，描述非常不同的动物如何解决类似的问题。动物迁徙寻找食物、配偶和庇护所。在节肢动物门、软体动物门和脊索动物门中，神经系统朝向较高级别的大脑和较低级别的感觉运动网络头化。没有身体，大脑就不会存在，但人们对神经系统如何控制和协调身体各部分的分布知之甚少。许多基本问题仍未得到解答：神经信息是如何编码和交流的？该系统如何纠正环境扰动？被动生物力学如何影响神经元对行为的控制？这就引出了一个基础性的问题：神经系统如何控制和执行与环境的互动？这个国际跨学科研究小组网络由模型师、工程师和实验者组成，旨在探索神经机械系统(C3NS)的通信、协调和控制。这个NeuroNex网络研究了三个门的模式属中的一个基本问题：节肢动物中的成年果蝇，软体动物中的软体动物，以及脊索动物中的小型哺乳动物。每个跨学科的研究小组都研究身体与环境相互作用的行为的控制。研究人员探索了较高级别的指挥中心(HLCC)如何向较低级别的运动中心(LLMC)发出下行命令，LLMC如何控制身体产生所需的行为，以及LLMC如何向HLCC返回上行信号。C3NS的动物模型允许使用相同的概念建模框架跨神经系统复杂程度和动态范围(即大小和速度)来研究这些问题。这一努力将创造一个自下而上的理论，解释神经系统如何在环境相互作用中控制运动。这个项目是由生物科学局的新兴前沿和计算机和信息科学与工程局的稳健智能共同资助的。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Despite the apparent differences between animals and their behaviors, they all are subject to the same constraints. All animals use a nervous system to control their motions, which must follow the laws of physics. Therefore, this NeuroNex Research Network seeks to understand how animals move by studying animals of different sizes and with unique evolutionary histories: Vertebrates (mice, rats, and cats), mollusks (sea hares), and insects (fruit flies). The differences between these species will inform how physics and evolution have shaped the nervous system. Understanding motion across different organisms and scales may lead to robots with more graceful, coordinated motion. Additionally, this Network enhances the training of American engineers and scientists by exchanging post-doctoral trainees and students between laboratories, providing them opportunities to work with different model organisms, and broadening the trainees’ education. The activities of this Network enrich existing outreach programs through interactions with international, interdisciplinary collaborators and allow for new, larger initiatives. Public demonstrations, day camps, and internships carried out as part of this project expose K-12 students to interdisciplinary research and international collaborators’ ideas and culture. This Network also constructs exhibits at natural science museums in its major cities and develops an interactive website describing how very different animals solve similar problems.Animals move to seek food, mates, and shelter. In the phyla Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Chordata, the nervous system cephalized towards a higher-level brain and lower-level sensorimotor network. The brain would not exist without a body, and yet little is understood about how the nervous system controls and coordinates distributed body parts. Many fundamental questions remain unanswered: How is neural information encoded and communicated? How does the system correct for environmental perturbations? How do passive biomechanics affect the neuronal control of behavior? This leads to the foundational question: How do nervous systems control and execute interactions with the environment? This international Network of interdisciplinary research groups consists of modelers, engineers, and experimentalists to explore the Communication, Coordination, and Control of Neuromechanical Systems (C3NS). This NeuroNex Network investigates a foundational question in model genera from three phyla: adult Drosophila from Arthropoda, Aplysia from Mollusca, and small mammals from Chordata. Each interdisciplinary research group studies the control of a behavior in which the body interacts with the environment. Investigators explore how higher-level command centers (HLCCs) generate descending commands to lower-level motor centers (LLMCs), how LLMCs control the body to produce desired behavior, and how LLMCs generate ascending signals back to HLCCs. The animal models of C3NS allow the investigation of these questions across degrees of nervous system complexity and ranges of dynamic scale (i.e., size and speed) using the same conceptual modeling framework. This effort will create a bottom-up theory for how nervous systems control movement during environmental interactions. This project is co-funded by Emerging Frontiers in the Directorate for Biological Sciences and Robust Intelligence in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.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.