NeuroNex: Communication, Coordination, and Control in Neuromechanical Systems (C3NS)

尽管动物和它们的行为之间存在明显的差异，但它们都受到相同的约束。所有动物都使用神经系统来控制它们的运动，这必须遵循物理定律。因此，这个NeuroNex研究网络试图通过研究不同大小和具有独特进化历史的动物来了解动物如何移动：脊椎动物（小鼠，大鼠和猫），软体动物（海兔）和昆虫（果蝇）。这些物种之间的差异将告诉物理学和进化如何塑造神经系统。了解不同生物体和尺度的运动可能会使机器人具有更优雅，协调的运动。此外，该网络通过在实验室之间交换博士后受训人员和学生，为他们提供研究不同模式生物的机会，并扩大受训人员的教育，加强对美国工程师和科学家的培训。该网络的活动通过与国际跨学科合作者的互动丰富了现有的外联方案，并允许采取新的更大的举措。作为该项目的一部分，公众示威，日营和实习使K-12学生接触到跨学科研究和国际合作者的思想和文化。该网络还在其主要城市的自然科学博物馆举办展览，并开发了一个互动网站，介绍不同的动物如何解决类似的问题。在节肢动物门、软体动物门和脊索动物门中，神经系统向更高层次的大脑和更低层次的感觉运动网络集中。没有身体，大脑就不会存在，但人们对神经系统如何控制和协调分布的身体部位知之甚少。许多基本问题仍然没有答案：神经信息是如何编码和交流的？系统如何校正环境扰动？被动生物力学如何影响神经元对行为的控制？这就引出了一个基本问题：神经系统如何控制和执行与环境的相互作用？这个跨学科研究小组的国际网络由建模师，工程师和实验学家组成，旨在探索神经机械系统（C3 NS）的通信，协调和控制。这个NeuroNex网络研究了三个门的模式属中的一个基本问题：来自节肢动物门的成年果蝇，来自软体动物门的Aparasia，以及来自脊索动物门的小型哺乳动物。每个跨学科研究小组都研究身体与环境相互作用的行为控制。研究人员探索了高级指挥中心（HLCCs）如何向低级运动中心（LLMCs）生成下行命令，LLMCs如何控制身体产生所需的行为，以及LLMCs如何向HLCCs生成上行信号。C3 NS的动物模型允许跨神经系统复杂程度和动态尺度范围（即，尺寸和速度）使用相同的概念建模框架。这项工作将为神经系统如何在环境相互作用中控制运动创造一个自下而上的理论。该项目由生物科学理事会的新兴前沿和计算机与信息科学与工程理事会的强大智能共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Despite the apparent differences between animals and their behaviors, they all are subject to the same constraints. All animals use a nervous system to control their motions, which must follow the laws of physics. Therefore, this NeuroNex Research Network seeks to understand how animals move by studying animals of different sizes and with unique evolutionary histories: Vertebrates (mice, rats, and cats), mollusks (sea hares), and insects (fruit flies). The differences between these species will inform how physics and evolution have shaped the nervous system. Understanding motion across different organisms and scales may lead to robots with more graceful, coordinated motion. Additionally, this Network enhances the training of American engineers and scientists by exchanging post-doctoral trainees and students between laboratories, providing them opportunities to work with different model organisms, and broadening the trainees’ education. The activities of this Network enrich existing outreach programs through interactions with international, interdisciplinary collaborators and allow for new, larger initiatives. Public demonstrations, day camps, and internships carried out as part of this project expose K-12 students to interdisciplinary research and international collaborators’ ideas and culture. This Network also constructs exhibits at natural science museums in its major cities and develops an interactive website describing how very different animals solve similar problems.Animals move to seek food, mates, and shelter. In the phyla Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Chordata, the nervous system cephalized towards a higher-level brain and lower-level sensorimotor network. The brain would not exist without a body, and yet little is understood about how the nervous system controls and coordinates distributed body parts. Many fundamental questions remain unanswered: How is neural information encoded and communicated? How does the system correct for environmental perturbations? How do passive biomechanics affect the neuronal control of behavior? This leads to the foundational question: How do nervous systems control and execute interactions with the environment? This international Network of interdisciplinary research groups consists of modelers, engineers, and experimentalists to explore the Communication, Coordination, and Control of Neuromechanical Systems (C3NS). This NeuroNex Network investigates a foundational question in model genera from three phyla: adult Drosophila from Arthropoda, Aplysia from Mollusca, and small mammals from Chordata. Each interdisciplinary research group studies the control of a behavior in which the body interacts with the environment. Investigators explore how higher-level command centers (HLCCs) generate descending commands to lower-level motor centers (LLMCs), how LLMCs control the body to produce desired behavior, and how LLMCs generate ascending signals back to HLCCs. The animal models of C3NS allow the investigation of these questions across degrees of nervous system complexity and ranges of dynamic scale (i.e., size and speed) using the same conceptual modeling framework. This effort will create a bottom-up theory for how nervous systems control movement during environmental interactions. This project is co-funded by Emerging Frontiers in the Directorate for Biological Sciences and Robust Intelligence in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.