Scale-Dependent Processing of Clustered Sensory Signals

在自然环境中，感觉信号通常来自聚集的来源。例如，在交配季节，将雌性青蛙引导到特定雄性青蛙的听觉线索嵌入到来自数百只不同物种的雄性叫声的密集合唱中。聚集的信号对生物系统以及智能神经假体和机器感知系统都构成了巨大的挑战。例如，智能助听器应该在杂乱的环境中表现出强劲的性能，背景中有其他声音。一个由多学科研究人员组成的团队将探索动物用来检测、识别和定位嵌入相似信号集合中的单个信号的神经机制和计算算法。实验研究将重点放在雌性青蛙通过听觉调节的交配合唱方式，以及电鱼通过电感调节的方式接近一群猎物。这些研究将包括距离自然交配池塘不同距离的青蛙合唱的音频录音，以及浮游动物群体产生的活跃电感官信号的电子录音。进场轨迹将使用无线电遥测(青蛙)和红外录像(鱼、青蛙)进行记录和分析。理论分析将借鉴计算机视觉的算法，包括多尺度分组和分割、目标检测和跟踪、主动视觉、纹理分析以及运动和结构估计。通过对青蛙的听神经和中脑神经元以及鱼类的初级电感觉传入和后脑神经元的电生理学研究，将评估聚集信号处理的神经关联。该项目将包括对学生的跨学科培训(工程学和神经生物学)，一个分享这一领域的数据、软件和参考资料的网站，并可能有助于开发用于语音识别和视频监视的改进的机器设备。

In natural environments, sensory signals often arise from clustered sources. For example, during the mating season, the auditory cues that guide a female frog to a particular male are embedded in a dense chorus arising from hundreds of calling males of different species. Clustered signals pose a significant challenge for biological systems as well as for intelligent neural prostheses and machine perception systems. For example, an intelligent hearing aid should exhibit robust performance in cluttered environments with other voices in the background. A multidisciplinary team of investigators will explore the neural mechanisms and computational algorithms that animals use to detect, identify, and localize individual signals embedded in an ensemble of similar signals. Experimental studies will focus on the auditory-mediated approach of female frogs to a mating chorus and the electrosensory-mediated approach of electric fish to a cluster of prey. These studies will include audio recordings of frog choruses at different distances from natural mating ponds and electrical recordings of active electrosensory signals arising from swarms of zooplankton. Approach trajectories will be recorded and analyzed using radio telemetry (frogs) and infrared video recordings (fish, frogs). Theoretical analysis will draw on algorithms from computer vision including multiscale grouping and segmentation, target detection and tracking, active vision, texture analysis, and motion and structure estimation. Neural correlates of clustered signal processing will be assessed through electrophysiological studies on auditory nerve and midbrain neurons in frogs and primary electrosensory afferent and hindbrain neurons in fish. This project will incorporate interdisciplinary training (engineering and neurobiology) for students, a web site for sharing data, software and references in this field and could contribute to the development of improved machine devices for speech recognition and video surveillance.