CRCNS: Decision-making in flying insects using multisensory cues

描述（由申请人提供）：这个项目解决了一个基本问题：感官体验的历史如何影响行为决策？我们解决这个问题的神经行为学的背景下，蚊子的主机寻求，其中存在的热和二氧化碳信号触发和直接搜索行为。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的相互作用，并根据行为和神经数据开发多感觉整合模型。它将通过记录和直接数值模拟来解决嗅觉和热刺激的统计结构中的空间变化，并研究有害平流标量场的普遍性质是否可以为源位置和形状神经反应提供感官证据。我们将获得新的神经记录响应多个随时间变化的输入。通过开发蚊子的系留飞行准备，我们将能够记录受约束飞行期间的神经活动，并将感觉神经活动直接与蚊子的感觉神经活动联系起来。 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。这项工作也可能在嗅觉领域的新型传感器算法设计中产生超越昆虫生理学的影响。该项目的其他更广泛的影响来自教育和社区参与，通过对本科生和研究生以及博士后进行跨学科培训;我们的研究小组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，通过新的校园范围内的举措;通过各种社交媒体向社区传达我们的成果;并参与教师和K-12教室的外展活动。

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.