RESOURCE FOR THE STUDY OF NEURAL MODELS OF BEHAVIOR

在过去的十年里，对清醒行为动物的神经科学研究已经 研究表明，神经元活动可以随着行为的改变而显著改变 背景。罗切斯特大学最近的拟人化模型和 其他地方表明，许多复杂的代表性问题 在没有环境和行为背景的情况下进行表述 在直接利用此上下文的系统中变得更简单。这些 研究表明，一些复杂的行为可以简化为 松散协调的基本行为的集合，极大地减少了 需要复杂的内部表述。这些和许多其他的 观察表明，用于表示的自然变量 神经系统中的信息可能与动物的 行为。如果是这样的话，神经科学方面的重大进步将 需要能够直接测量重要方面的实验仪器 行为状态。 这项提议是为了开发最先进的仪器设备 结合相关神经对行为进行监测和模拟 参数。这一工具将形成一个国家资源，它将 位于由三个相互关联的实验室组成的综合体中 罗切斯特大学。拟议的实验计划是一项 集成的跨学科努力，包括行为、 计算和神经科学实验。 该资源的具体目标如下。 A)该资源将极大地扩展我们监控行为的能力 自然情况。这个实验室的设计主要是针对 四种不同现代技术的系统集成 在连贯环境中的创新：(1)测量眼睛的设备 头部自由移动情况下的运动，(2)测量装置 运动状态，如手臂和手的运动；(3)用于生产的装置 全身加速，和(4)拟人化的装置来模拟 进行实验并制定实验方案。 B)该资源将为开展 跨学科的实验紧密结合在一起的结果 一个领域的实验可以用于设计另一个领域的实验 域名。 C)该资源将为开发提供工具，并 传播专门为以下项目设计的新硬件和软件 对这些环境的控制。

Over the past decade neuroscience studies with awake behaving animals have shown that neuronal activity can change dramatically with behavioral context. Recent anthropomorphic models at the University of Rochester and elsewhere suggest that many representational problems that are complex when formulated in the absence of environmental and behavioral context become simpler in systems that directly exploit this context. These studies have shown that some complex behaviors can be reduced to a collection of loosely coordinated primitive behaviors, vastly reducing the need for complex internal representations. These and many other observations suggest that the natural variables for representing information in the nervous system may be in terms of the animal's behaviors. If this is the case, significant progress in neuroscience will require experimental apparatus that can directly measure important aspects of behavioral state. This proposal is to develop state-of-the-art instrumentation for the monitoring and simulation of behavior in conjunction with relevant neural parameters. This instrumentation would form a national resource that would be situated in a complex of three interrelated laboratories at the University of Rochester. The proposed experimental program is an integrated interdisciplinary effort that includes behavioral, computational and neuroscience experiments. The specific aims of the resource would be as follows. A) The resource would greatly extend our capability to monitor behavior in natural situations. The design of the laboratory is directed primarily towards the system integration of four different kinds of recent technical innovations into a coherent setting: (1) equipment to measure eye movements in freely moving head situations, (2) devices for measuring kinematic state such as arm and hand movements, (3) devices for producing whole body accelerations, and (4) anthropomorphic devices to simulate experiments and develop experimental protocols. B) The resource would provide a setting for the conduction of interdisciplinary experiments that are tightly coupled in that the results of an experiment in one domain can be used to design experiments in other domains. C) The resource would provide a vehicle for the development and dissemination of new hardware and software specifically designed for the control of these environments.