Social cues that drive animal exploration

该项目汇集了感觉神经科学（所罗门）和动物行为（范思哲）方面的专家。它建立在工作的基础上，表明简单的2D物体可以诱导小鼠（1，5）和小鸡（2，3）的接近或回避反应，并且某些几何构型比其他构型更有吸引力（例如4）。最近，我们开发了新的软件，允许我们使用深度神经网络来跟踪动物并真实的更新其视觉环境。这项新技术允许呈现对动物的动作有反应的视觉对象。学生将测试反应性吸引对对象的注意力并因此引导探索行为的假设。我们认为，某些形式的反应会增加接近物体的动力，而另一些形式的反应会增加回避物体的动力。为了验证这一假设，学生将首先在两种截然不同的动物--哺乳动物（小鼠）和鸟类（小鸡）--身上进行同样的行为测量，这两种动物都表现出本能的探索或回避新物体。这将提供社会线索如何引导跨类群探索的知识，从而更好地理解它们的适应价值。为了理解这些社会线索如何影响大脑活动，学生将首先对立即早期基因激活进行全脑分析，比较社会探索和感官匹配的非社会探索期间的激活模式。这些测量将用于指导基于病毒的钙成像，和/或电生理测量，在自由移动的动物。我们预计，反应性将引起“感觉”脑区活动的适度变化，但在大脑皮层的关联区及其中脑靶区中会产生更大的差异。时间允许的话，学生也将利用病毒介导的设计受体表达来针对这些大脑区域进行因果操纵。

This project brings together supervisors who are experts in sensory neuroscience (Solomon)and animal behaviour (Versace). It builds on work from that shows that simple 2D objects caninduce approach or avoidance responses in mice (1,5) and chicks (2, 3), and that somegeometric configurations are more attractive than others (e.g. 4). Recently, we havedeveloped new software that allows us to use deep neural networks to track an animal andupdate its visual environment in real time. This new technology allows the presentation ofvisual objects that are responsive to an animal's actions.The student will test the hypothesis that responsiveness attracts attention to an object andtherefore guides exploration behaviour. We expect that some forms of responsiveness willincrease the drive to approach an object while others will increase the drive to avoid it. Totest this hypothesis, the student will first conduct the same behavioural measurements in twovery different animals - mammal (mice) and bird (chicks), both of which show instinctiveexploration or avoidance of novel objects. This will provide knowledge of how social cuesguide exploration across taxa, and thus a better understanding of their adaptive value.To understand how these social cues influence brain activity the student will first performbrain-wide analysis of immediate early gene activation, comparing activation patterns duringsocial exploration, and sensory-matched unsocial exploration. These measurements will beused to guide viral-based calcium imaging, and/or electrophysiological measurements, infreely-moving animals. We expect that responsiveness will induce modest changes in activityin 'sensory' brain areas, but much stronger differences in association areas of the cerebralcortex and their targets in the mid-brain. Time permitting, the student will also target thesebrain areas for causal manipulation using virus-mediated expression of designer receptors.