Neuromuscular Control of Directional Swimming in Cubomedusae

立方水母定向游泳的神经肌肉控制

基本信息

批准号：
0920825
负责人：
Richard Satterlie
金额：
$ 40.02万
依托单位：
University of North Carolina at Wilmington
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2009
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2009-08-15 至 2014-07-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0920825&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Neuromuscular Control Directional Swimming Cubomedusae

项目摘要

Cubozoan jellyfish (box jellyfish) include some of the most venomous animals in the ocean, and their habitat includes nearshore areas in use for human recreation. Recent evidence suggests that two less venomous species of cubomedusae are invading local North Carolina waters in large numbers, just off of popular beaches. Furthermore, these jellyfish belong to an animal group, including corals and anemones, with the simplest and most primitive multicellular nervous systems. Despite this simplicity, these animals have very rich behavioral repertoires and can successfully avoid obstacles, swim toward dim light sources, and respond to brief shadows. These properties underline the importance of understanding the neural control of behavior in this very active group of jellyfish: to better understand how to adapt human recreational activity to the expanding habitat of these venomous animals and to gain insight into the evolution of nervous system function, in general, related to behavioral variability and muscular control. As voracious predators on small fish and crustaceans, their impact on commercially valuable species has yet to be evaluated. Finally, information on the neural control of behavior in cubomedusae may be useful in animal-inspired marine robotics that may be of use in both commercial and military applications. This project will use a combination of electrical recording from neurons and muscles, structural examination of neuromuscular organization, and behavioral observations to describe the rapid and accurate turning abilities in response to both visual and mechanical stimuli, and to describe the strong swimming abilities of the jellyfish.

立方体水母（箱形水母）包括海洋中一些最毒的动物，它们的栖息地包括用于人类娱乐的近岸区域。最近的证据表明，两种毒性较小的立方体蜥蜴正在大量入侵北卡罗来纳州当地的水域，就在受欢迎的海滩附近。此外，这些水母属于包括珊瑚和海葵在内的具有最简单、最原始的多细胞神经系统的动物群。尽管很简单，但这些动物具有非常丰富的行为能力，可以成功地避开障碍物、游向昏暗的光源并对短暂的阴影做出反应。这些特性强调了了解这一非常活跃的水母群体行为的神经控制的重要性：更好地了解如何使人类娱乐活动适应这些有毒动物不断扩大的栖息地，并深入了解神经系统功能的进化，一般而言，与行为变异性和肌肉控制有关。作为小鱼和甲壳类动物的贪婪捕食者，它们对具有商业价值的物种的影响尚未得到评估。最后，有关立方体行为的神经控制的信息可能对受动物启发的海洋机器人有用，该机器人可用于商业和军事应用。该项目将结合神经元和肌肉的电记录、神经肌肉组织的结构检查和行为观察来描述水母响应视觉和机械刺激的快速准确的转动能力，并描述水母强大的游泳能力。