SYMPOSIUM: "Motor Control of Vertebrate Feeding: Functional and Evolutionary Perspectives", Chicago, IL, Jan 3-7, 2001

脊椎动物以各种各样的方式进食，从许多鱼类的大嘴巴，到一些蜥蜴和蝾螈的黏糊糊的弹射舌头，再到大型猫科动物有力的撕裂颚和牙齿。虽然生物学家早就认识到，随着不同脊椎动物群体的进食策略多样化，头骨的骨骼和肌肉经历了重大的进化，但过去20年的研究表明，在进化过程中，负责控制进食行为的神经回路可能相对不灵活。一些研究人员认为，神经回路的复杂性使它们对进化变化具有抵抗力。因此，进食行为的变化被认为是通过肌肉和/或骨骼形状的变化来完成的，而不是通过肌肉本身的“硬连接”或神经控制来完成的。这次研讨会的目的是通过检查脊椎动物的进食模式来评估神经回路保守性的这些观点。来自世界各地研究鱼类、鲨鱼、青蛙、海龟、蜥蜴、哺乳动物和鸟类的生物学家将聚集在一起，讨论这些动物群体中明显的头骨和下颌运动和运动控制模式。通过识别这些主要群体的趋势，并综合它们之间明显的模式，工作人员将改进当前的脊椎动物摄食模型，并为未来探索新的、可能富有成果的研究途径。

Vertebrates feed in a diversity of ways, from the large, sucking mouths of many fishes to sticky, projectile tongues of some lizards and salamanders, to the powerful, tearing jaws and teeth of large cats. Although biologists have long recognized the bones and muscles of the skull have undergone significant evolution as feeding strategies have diversified in different vertebrate groups, work over the last 20 years has suggested that the neural circuitry responsible for controlling feeding behavior may be relatively inflexible over evolutionary time. Some workers have suggested that the complexity of neural circuits makes them resistant to evolutionary change. Innovations in feeding behavior are thus thought to be accomplished by changes in muscle and/or bone shape and not changes in the "hard-wiring" or neural control of the muscles themselves.The goals of this symposium are to evaluate these ideas about neural circuit conservatism by examining feeding patterns across vertebrates. Biologists from around the world working on fishes, sharks, frogs, turtles, lizards, mammals, and birds, will come together to discuss the patterns of skull and jaw movement and motor control evident in each of these groups. By identifying trends within each of these major groups and synthesizing patterns apparent across them, workers will refine current models of vertebrate feeding and explore new and potentially fruitful avenues of research for the future.