NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2013

2013 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 1306695
• 负责人: Matthew Green
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Green Matthew H
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-06-01 至 2015-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1306695&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

Neural mechanisms of mobile prey detection during locomotionThe visual world of animals is always in motion. A video camera mounted directly onto the eyeball would record a blur of perpetual movement. Visual motion can signal the presence of behaviorally important objects such as prey or predators, yet each time an animal shifts its gaze or engages in locomotion, the visual surround also moves. How does the brain distinguish between visual motion caused by movement of the eyes, head or body, versus visual motion caused by mobile objects in the environment? To tackle this question, this fellowship will support the development of innovative, virtual reality methods that will be combined with genetic techniques to record the activity of specific circuit elements in the brain of larval zebrafish while they attempt to visually track and capture "virtual" prey items. In zebrafish and many other vertebrates, the ability to capture prey is reliant on a midbrain structure called the optic tectum; however, very little is known about identity or function of neural circuits in the tectum or elsewhere in the brain that function to detect and direct attention towards mobile prey. Although current neural recording techniques require that fish be immobilized, a virtual reality system overcomes this limitation by simulating the motion of the visual world that fish would experience while freely swimming. Critically, a virtual reality system will make it possible to experimentally decouple changes in the sensory surround from motor actions, allowing for a precise dissection of feedback mechanisms between sensory and motor processing in the nervous system.Training goals include learning to implement real-time, closed-loop controllers for visual displays, and learning to use genetic methods for identifying and imaging neurons in zebrafish. This fellowship will also support the development of a human eye-tracking, virtual reality system, to be used in the classroom or in a public venue, such as a museum. This eye-tracking system will allow students or the public to interactively investigate relationships between their movement and their perception of motion.

运动过程中移动猎物检测的神经机制总是在运动。直接安装在眼球上的摄像机会记录永久运动的模糊。视觉运动可以表明存在行为重要的物体（例如猎物或捕食者）的存在，但是每次动物都会转移其视线或参与运动时，视觉周围也会移动。大脑如何区分由眼睛，身体运动的运动引起的视觉运动，而不是环境中移动物体引起的视觉运动？为了解决这个问题，该奖学金将支持创新的虚拟现实方法的发展，这些方法将与遗传技术相结合，以记录幼虫斑马鱼大脑中特定电路元素的活动，同时他们试图在视觉上跟踪和捕获“虚拟”猎物。在斑马鱼和许多其他脊椎动物中，捕获猎物的能力依赖于称为光学底饰的中脑结构。然而，关于底盘中神经回路或大脑中其他地方的神经回路的身份或功能知之甚少，这些功能可检测和直接关注移动猎物。尽管当前的神经记录技术要求将鱼固定在固定中，但虚拟现实系统通过模拟视觉世界的运动来克服这种限制，而视觉世界的运动在自由游泳时会体验到。至关重要的是，虚拟现实系统将使通过运动动作与感官周围的变化进行实验，从而可以精确解剖神经系统中感觉和运动处理之间的反馈机制。培训目标包括学习实现实时，闭环控制器以进行视觉显示器，并学习使用遗传方法来识别Zebrish和Zebranfish中的遗传方法。该奖学金还将支持在课堂或公共场所（例如博物馆）中使用人类眼睛追踪的虚拟现实体系的发展。这种引人注目的跟踪系统将使学生或公众能够交互研究其运动与运动感知之间的关系。