Collaborative Research: A Dynamic Atlas of the Cricket Cercal Sensory System

神经科学中的一个基本问题是，自然感觉刺激是如何编码的，以供大脑处理信息。无脊椎动物通常提供的系统在某些方面比哺乳动物的系统更简单，并包括相对较少数量的网络中可识别的单个细胞等特征。这个合作项目利用了一种名为蟋蟀颈部系统的感觉系统，在该系统中，身体后部的小附肢含有细毛，用于检测、识别和定位与行为相关的气流运动，例如捕食者产生的运动。来自大约2000个感受器细胞的输入汇聚在30个局部中间神经元和只有20个输出中间神经元上，这些中间神经元导致了逃逸等行为。两个机构的三名合作者对解剖和生理测量数据库进行了计算和数学分析，这些数据库是在大脑中对外围信号进行中央处理的动态地图上进行的。我们的目标是表征在映射的感觉系统中的两个加工阶段的动态感觉刺激参数的表征，并检验在这两个加工阶段之间的界面上转化表征的机制。结果对于我们理解神经系统中的信息表示将是重要的，特别是在动态处理中。该项目还将促进一名女性数学教员的独立职业生涯，学生将在两个目前在联邦资助的研究中并不引人注目的州接受与生物学相关的多学科、高质量的培训。

A fundamental question in neuroscience is how natural sensory stimuli are encoded for information handling by the brain. Invertebrate animals often offer systems that are in some ways simpler than those of mammals, and including such features as identifiable single cells in networks of relatively few numbers. This collaborative project exploits a sensory system called the cercal system of the cricket, in which small appendages on the rear of the body contain fine hairs that are used to detect, identify and localize behaviorally relevant air current movements, such as those produced by a predator. The input from roughly 2000 receptor cells converges on 30 local interneurons and only 20 output interneurons that lead to behavior such as escape. Three collaborators at two institutions use computational and mathematical analyses of a database of anatomical and physiological measurements on the 'dynamic map' that does the central processing in the brain of the peripheral signals. The goals are to characterize the representation of dynamic sensory stimulus parameters at two processing stages within the mapped sensory system, and to examine the mechanisms that transform the representation at the interface between these two processing stages. Results will be important for our understanding of information representation in nervous systems, particularly in dynamic processing. The project also will enhance the independent career of a woman faculty member in mathematics, and students will receive multi-disciplinary, highly quantitative training related to biology, in two states that do not currently have high profiles in federally funded research.