Multimodal Intergration in a Decision-Making Neuron

大多数动物利用多种信息来源来形成对世界的一致感知，以便做出适应性行为决定。这些过程发生在嵌入中枢神经系统的复杂神经网络中，通常很难在细胞水平上识别和研究。因此，对多式联运信息处理和决策的基本原则的充分理解已经滞后。这个项目旨在显著扩展我们对单个神经元及其在中央计算中的作用的理解。具体地说，它将解决一个常见但鲜为人知的感觉运动整合现象：神经元如何处理具有不同时间特征的多模式感觉输入，例如，渐进的视觉运动刺激和突然的声音。为此，将使用调节鱼类惊逃行为的网络。这些网络是独一无二的，因为它们涉及可定义的决策神经元，即莫特纳细胞，它接受多模式输入，可以用电生理和行为技术进行研究。该提议的一个指导思想是，神经兴奋和抑制的时机和平衡在信息处理和行为表达中发挥着重要作用。这些特征与神经系统紊乱直接相关，在神经系统紊乱中，这种平衡受到损害。该项目的多学科组成部分使学生能够参与不同程度的培训和经验，因此将提供绝佳的教育和外联机会。初步结果的产生已经涉及到高中、本科生、研究生和博士后学生。当来自单一感官的信号微弱或被剥夺时，多模式整合增强了我们的知觉。阐明不同感官相互作用的原理和机制将对设计/优化执行感知要求高的任务的人或机器的感觉环境非常有用。

Most animals take advantage of multiple information sources to form a coherent percept of the world for adaptive behavioral decisions. These processes occur in complex neural networks embedded in the central nervous system that are typically difficult to identify and to study at the cellular level. Accordingly, a full understanding of the principles underlying multimodal information processing and decision-making has lagged behind. This project aims to significantly extend our understanding of single neurons and their roles in central computation. Specifically, it will address a common yet little understood sensorimotor integration phenomenon: how neurons process multimodal sensory inputs with different temporal characteristics, for example, gradual visual motion stimuli and abrupt sounds. For this purpose, the networks that mediate the fish startle-escape behavior will be used. These networks are unique, because they involve definable decision-making neurons, the Mauthner cells, which receive multimodal inputs and can be studied with electrophysiological and behavioral techniques. A guiding idea for the proposal is that the timing and balance of neural excitation and inhibition play a significant role in information processing and the expression of behavior. These characteristics are directly relevant to nervous system disorders in which this balance is impaired. The multidisciplinary components of this project allow the involvement of students at different levels of training and experience and thus will provide outstanding educational and outreach opportunities. The generation of preliminary results already has involved high school, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students.Multimodal integration enhances our perception when the signal from a single sense organ is weak or deprived. Elucidating the principles and mechanisms by which different senses interact will be very useful in designing/optimizing the sensory environment of people or machines performing perceptually demanding tasks.