Dynamics of active sensing movements and sensory processing

动物有时候是通过对我们来说陌生的感官来感知世界的。电鱼尤其如此，这是一种生活在南美洲和西非的小鱼，可以产生和检测电场。通过分布在它们皮肤上的电感受器，它们测量它们自生电场的扰动。利用这种电感觉信息，它们可以探测物体，导航和交流。这个提议集中在电感觉的各个方面，从单个神经元的规模到行为的规模。我的目标是：1）建立一个计算模型，能够捕获在初级电感觉处理区的锥体神经元中观察到的特定形式的电压噪声，2）分析和建模自由行为的鱼类的节律性行为。这些问题涉及非线性和随机动力系统的概念，并需要应用计算机模拟神经元模型等计算工具。都是我的专业领域虽然这项工作是理论性的，但它将利用现有的实验数据，以确保所提出的模型是有经验依据的。长期以来，理论和实验方法之间的协同作用一直被认为是神经科学和生物学中有价值的方法，而这一建议正好符合这一框架。总的来说，这项工作将有助于提高我们对感觉信息处理，神经元兴奋性，主动感知和注意力的总体理解。除了在知识方面取得根本性进展外，这项工作的成果还可能导致新的生物医学工程技术（如人工耳蜗植入），并改进对注意力缺陷障碍等疾病的诊断或治疗工具。

Animals sometimes perceive the world through senses that appear foreign to us. This is particularly true of electric fish, a type of small fish living in South America and West Africa that can produce and detect electric fields. Through electroreceptors distributed on their skin, they measure perturbations of their self-generated electric field. Using such electrosensory information, they can detect objects, navigate and communicate. This proposal focuses on various aspects of this electric sense, from the scale of single neurons to that of behaviour. My aims are to 1) build a computational model able to capture the particular form of voltage noise observed in pyramidal neurons of the primary electrosensory processing area, and 2) to analyze and model rhythmic electromotor behaviours of freely behaving fish. These problems involve notions of nonlinear and stochastic dynamical systems, and require the application of computational tools, such as computer-simulated neuronal models. all topics that lie within my area of expertise. While this work is of theoretical nature, it will make use of available experimental data in order to ensure that the proposed models are empirically grounded. The synergy between theoretical and experimental approaches has been long recognized as a valuable approach in neuroscience and biology, and this proposal fits right into this framework. Overall, this work will contribute to improve our general understanding of sensory information processing, neuronal excitability, active sensing, and attention. In addition to fundamental advances in terms of knowledge, the results emerging from this work could also lead to novel biomedical engineering technologies (such as cochlear implants) and to improved diagnostic or treatment tools for conditions such as attention deficit disorder.