CAREER: Mammalian Models for Teaching and Research in Neuroethology

通过探索具有特别发达感官的动物物种，在理解神经系统功能方面取得了重要进展。本项目研究一些高度特化的小型哺乳动物物种的神经生物学和行为，旨在揭示神经系统组织、功能和可塑性的一般原理。星鼻鼹鼠华丽的鼻子有一种特殊的触觉，包括机械感觉器官，用来根据几乎微小的纹理进行快速区分。结合机械感受器功能的计算机模拟和新皮层触觉信息并行处理的研究，对高分辨率和高速触觉的觅食行为、猎物选择和大脑特化进行了分析。类似的神经行为学比较方法将利用裸鼹鼠来研究自然发生的成年大脑可塑性，这种可塑性可能伴随着工蚁到蚁后的身体转变。裸鼹鼠在哺乳动物中是独一无二的，像一些群居昆虫一样，有一个种姓制度，包括较小的工蚁和较大的蚁后。最后，象鼩有一个特殊的嗅觉系统，这可能为哺乳动物的嗅觉定位提供新的见解。这些比较研究对教学特别有价值，因为这些问题带着研究者和学生走过一段发现之旅，从自然环境中的动物到单细胞的解剖学和生理学的另一个极端。研究结果将影响神经生物学的许多层面，以及动物行为和自然历史。作为一个CAREER项目，这项工作为研究生和本科生提供了多种学科方法和机会，包括实验室和实地工作，还涉及本科课程开发和公众宣传。

Important advances in understanding nervous-system function have been made by exploring animal species with particularly well-developed senses. This project on the neurobiology and behavior of some highly specialized small-mammal species aims to reveal general principles of nervous-system organization, function, and plasticity. Star-nosed moles have an exceptional sense of touch in their ornate noses, including mechanosensory organs that are used to make rapid discriminations based on nearly microscopic textures. Analyses of foraging behavior, prey selection and brain specializations for high-resolution and high-speed tactile sensations are done in combination with computer simulations of mechanoreceptor function and investigation of parallel processing of touch information in the neocortex. Similar comparative approaches to neuroethology will utilize naked mole-rats, unique among mammals in having a caste system like some social insects, including smaller workers and larger queens, to study naturally occurring adult brain plasticity that may accompany the physical transformation of workers to queens. Finally, elephant shrews have a specialized olfactory system that may provide novel insights about olfactory localization in mammals. These comparative studies are particularly valuable for teaching because the questions take the investigators and students through a journey of discovery that ranges from the animal in its natural environment at one extreme to the anatomy and physiology of single cells at the other. Results will have an impact throughout many levels of neurobiology, as well as in animal behavior and natural history. As a CAREER project, this work incorporates a variety of disciplinary approaches and opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students, including laboratory and field work, and also involves undergraduate course development and public outreach.