BRAIN EAGER: Closing the Loop on Social Behaviors, From Mathematical Models to Neural Circuit Dynamics

动物，从昆虫到人类，天生就是社会性的，大脑已经进化到对携带社会信息的感官线索（例如，语音或信息素）最敏感。关于动物大脑如何在社会互动的背景下处理信息，我们知之甚少。该提案旨在通过关注果蝇相对简单的神经系统来解决这个复杂的问题，并利用该系统中丰富的工具来剖析社会行为的机制。三位主要研究人员（Murthy，Shaevitz和Bialek）是行为分析，理论/建模和神经回路分析的专家，并将使用几种新方法来研究求爱，这是一种强大的社会行为，已被证明涉及男性和女性的复杂互动。这项工作不仅将揭示感官输入和内部状态相互作用产生行为的机制，而且还将有利于疾病的研究（例如，自闭症谱系），影响社会大脑。该研究项目是由针对教育本科生，特别是年轻女性，在计算神经科学的现代方法的推广工作的补充。从昆虫到人类，动物的大部分时间都在从事社会行为，大脑已经进化到对这些动态和时间尺度最敏感，因为它们对生存很重要。社会互动涉及感官知觉（检测另一个人产生的线索）和协调运动输出（产生社会行为）。大多数研究在“开环”框架中检查感觉和运动通路;然而，社会互动本质上是“闭环”的，因为通过每个人的感官收集的数据受到他/她自己和其他人的行为的深刻影响。该方案以果蝇为模型系统，采用新的方法和新的理论框架，旨在解决动物之间感觉感知的闭环问题。研究人员开创了几种新方法来促进这些研究，并且是行为分析，理论/建模和神经电路分析的专家。他们将结合联合收割机无偏见的行为量化，行为动物的全脑成像，受控的感官刺激和理论建模，以揭示社会行为和决策背后的神经回路动力学。对两只求偶苍蝇同时行为的详细分析将导致对塑造社会行为的个体之间的动态感官线索和相互作用的第一次严格和定量分析。对这些数据的理论研究将揭示在求偶过程中必须活跃的动态神经计算。最后，参与闭环虚拟社会互动的动物的神经回路记录将用于将大脑活动与特定的求偶行为和决定联系起来。

Animals, from insects to humans, are inherently social, and brains have evolved to be most sensitive to sensory cues that carry social information (for example, speech sounds or pheromones). Very little is known regarding how animal brains process information in the context of social interactions. This proposal seeks to address this complex issue by focusing on the relatively simple nervous system of the fruit fly Drosophila, and takes advantage of the wealth of tools available in this system to dissect the mechanisms underlying social behaviors. The three principal investigators (Murthy, Shaevitz, and Bialek) are experts with behavioral analysis, theory/modeling, and neural circuit analysis, and will use several new methods to study courtship, a robust social behavior that has been shown to involve a complex interaction of a male and a female. This work will not only uncover the mechanism by which sensory inputs and internal states interact to generate behavior, but also benefit studies of disorders (e.g., autism spectrum) that impact the social brain. The research project is complemented by outreach efforts targeted at educating undergraduates, and in particular young women, in modern methods in computational neuroscience. Animals, from insects to humans, spend a majority of their time engaged in social behaviors, and brains have evolved to be most sensitive to these dynamics and timescales, as they are important for survival. Social interactions involve both sensory perception (detecting cues generated by another individual) and coordinating motor outputs (to generate social behaviors). Most studies examine sensory and motor pathways in an "open loop" framework; however, social interactions are inherently "closed loop", as data gathered through the senses of each individual is profoundly shaped by his/her own actions and those of the other individual. With new methods and new theoretical frameworks, this proposal aims to solve the closed loop aspect of sensory perception between animals using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. The investigators have pioneered several new methods to facilitate these studies and are experts with behavioral analysis, theory/modeling, and neural circuit analysis. They will combine unbiased behavioral quantification, whole-brain imaging in behaving animals, controlled sensory stimuli, and theoretical modeling to uncover the neural circuit dynamics underlying social behaviors and decision-making. A detailed analysis of the simultaneous behaviors of two courting flies will lead to the first rigorous and quantitative analysis of the dynamic sensory cues and interactions between individuals that shape social behaviors. Theoretical work on these data will reveal the dynamic neural computations that must be active during courtship. Finally, neural circuit recordings in animals engaged in closed loop fictive social interactions will be used to link brain activity to specific courtship behaviors and decisions.