Functional logic of neural circuits: diamonds in the rough

了解大型复杂神经系统的一个紧迫挑战是绘制神经元在最低水平上如何以及为了什么目的进行通信。单向研究人员已经取得了很大的进展，通过记录大量的信息，神经元连接，电路，神经活动，行为，甚至一些模型系统的较小神经系统的基因组结构，如线虫，果蝇或斑马鱼。然而，所有这些详细的信息还没有导致对与理解人类大脑相关的重要问题的令人满意和更深入的了解。例如，神经元回路如何处理、编码、存储和检索信息？为了解决这些问题，重要的是要发展超越当前计算模型的脑回路功能逻辑的概念和理论框架。该奖项将汇集来自不同领域的神经科学先驱，包括实验，计算和理论学科，以确定最重要的主题和问题，以应对这一挑战。组织者将制作并领导一个关于神经回路功能逻辑的研讨会。讲习班将分两个阶段举行，一次虚拟会议，四个月后在波多黎各举行一次面对面会议。在第一阶段，与会者将提出问题，并绘制出这些学科交叉的不同领域之间的差距。他们将收集来自不同研究人员的想法，衡量兴趣，并征求这些领域前瞻性思想家的反馈和集体投入，为第二阶段奠定基础。在第二阶段，参与者将确定具体的研究方向和机会，如果追求，可以启动新的概念发展，这将导致我们对神经回路功能逻辑的理解的新突破。研讨会的具体主题，即神经回路的功能逻辑，不仅提供了一个机会来影响我们对神经系统的理解，无论大小，而且还提供了一个机会来开发具有生物体鲁棒性和灵活性的人工系统。最后，该研讨会的目的不仅是将科学家聚集在一起，以确定跨学科接口的困难问题，而且还培养年轻和多样化的一代不同的科学家在神经科学的前沿合作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持的评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

One of the pressing challenges to understand large and complex nervous systems is to map how and for what purpose neurons communicate at the lowest level. One-way researchers have made great progress is by recording enormous amounts of information about the neuronal connections, circuits, neural activity, behavior and even genomic structure of smaller nervous systems of some model systems, such as the nematode, fruit fly, or zebrafish. However, all this detailed information has not yet led to satisfying and deeper insight into important questions relevant to understanding the human brain. For example, how do circuits of neurons process, encode, store, and retrieve information? To address such questions, it is important to develop conceptual and theoretical frameworks of the functional logic of brain circuits that go beyond the current computational models. This award will bring together neuroscience pioneers from different fields, including experimental, computational, and theoretical disciplines to define the most important topics and questions to address this challenge.The organizers will produce and lead a workshop on the Functional Logic of Neural Circuits. The workshop will take place in two phases, a virtual meeting followed by an in-person meeting four months later, in Puerto Rico. In the first phase, the participants will bring up questions and map out the gap among the diverse fields intersecting these disciplines. They will collect ideas from diverse researchers, gauge interest, and solicit feedback and collective input from forward thinkers in these areas to lay ground for the second phase. In a second phase, participants will identify concrete research directions and opportunities that, if pursued, can initiate new conceptual developments that will lead to new breakthroughs in our understanding of the functional logic of neural circuits. The specific topic of the workshop, namely the functional logic of neural circuits offers an opportunity to impact not just our understanding of nervous systems, large or small, but also inform the development of artificial systems with the robustness and flexibility of living organisms. Finally, this workshop aims to not only bring together scientists to identify difficult problems at interdisciplinary interfaces, but to also train a young and diverse generation of diverse scientists to collaborate at the frontiers of neuroscience.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.