CRCNS: Decision-making in flying insects using multisensory cues

描述(由申请者提供)：这个项目解决了一个基本的问题：感官经验的历史如何影响行为决策？我们在蚊子寻找宿主的神经行为学背景下解决这个问题，在这种背景下，热和二氧化碳信号的存在触发和直接寻找行为。这个项目有几个新颖的方面。它将在自然行为的背景下定量地探索这种协同刺激相互作用，并开发基于行为和神经数据的多感觉整合模型。它将通过记录和直接的数值模拟来解决嗅觉和热刺激统计结构的空间变化，并检验湍流平流标量场的普遍性质是否可以为来源定位和形成神经反应提供感觉证据。我们将获得响应于多个时变输入的新的神经记录。通过开发一种针对蚊子的绳索飞行准备，我们将能够记录受限飞行期间的神经活动，并直接与感觉神经联系 对行为结果的反应。该项目的结果可能有助于设计非侵入性驱蚊剂或引诱剂，从而对疾病传播产生影响。这项工作还可能对嗅觉领域新型传感器的算法设计产生超越昆虫生理学的影响。这个项目产生的其他更广泛的影响来自于通过对本科生和研究生以及博士后研究员进行跨学科培训的教育和社区参与；我们的研究小组通过新的校园倡议积极参与计算神经科学和神经工程领域的综合教育和研究经验的更广泛目标；通过各种社交媒体向社区传播我们的成果；以及参与面向教师和K-12课堂的外联活动。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project addresses the fundamental question: how does the history of sensory experience affect behavioral decision-making? We address this problem in the neuroethological context of mosquito host seeking, in which the presence of thermal and carbon dioxide signals trigger and direct search behavior. This project has several novel aspects. It will quantitatively explore this synergistic stimulus interaction in the context f a natural behavior and develop models for multisensory integration based both on behavioral and neural data. It will address the spatial variations in the statistical structure of olfactory and thermal stimuli through recordings and direct numerical simulations, and examine whether the universal properties of turbulently advected scalar fields can provide sensory evidence for source location and shape neural responses. We will obtain novel neural recordings in response to multiple time-varying inputs. By a developing tethered flight preparation for mosquitoes, we will be able to record neural activity during constrained flight and directly relate sensory neural responses to behavioral outcomes. The results from this project may help in the design of noninvasive mosquito repellents or attractants and so have an impact on disease transmission. The work may also have impact beyond insect physiology in the design of algorithms for novel sensors in the olfactory domain. Additional broader impacts from this project arise from educational and community engagement through interdisciplinary training of undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; active involvement of our research groups in the broader goals of integrated education and research experiences in the areas of Computational Neuroscience and Neural Engineering through new campus-wide initiatives; communication of our results to the community through a wide variety of social media; and participation in outreach activities to teachers and K-12 classrooms.