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 显示神经元活动可以随着行为的变化而显著变化， 上下文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， 当在缺乏环境和行为背景的情况下制定时， 在直接利用该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 松散协调的原始行为的集合，大大减少了 需要复杂的内部表示。这些和许多其他 观察表明，自然变量代表 神经系统中的信息可能是动物的 行为。如果是这样的话，神经科学的重大进展将 需要能够直接测量重要方面的实验设备 行为状态。 该提案旨在为以下项目开发最先进的仪器： 行为的监控和模拟， 参数这种仪器将成为一种国家资源， 位于一个由三个相互关联的实验室组成的综合体中， 罗切斯特大学。拟议的实验方案是一个 综合的跨学科努力，包括行为， 计算和神经科学实验。 该资源的具体目标如下。 A）资源将大大扩展我们的能力，以监测行为， 自然情况。实验室的设计主要是针对 对四种不同的现代技术的系统集成 创新成一个连贯的设置：（1）设备，以测量眼睛 在头部自由移动的情况下的运动，（2）测量装置 运动状态，例如手臂和手的运动，（3）用于产生 全身加速度，和（4）拟人装置，以模拟 实验和开发实验方案。 B）资源将提供一个环境， 跨学科的实验是紧密结合的， 一个领域的实验可以用来设计其他领域的实验。 域. C）资源将为开发提供一个工具， 传播专门为这些领域设计的新硬件和软件， 控制这些环境。

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.