Collaborative Research: NSF-FO: Ground-Truth Analysis and Modeling of Entire Individual C. elegans Nervous Systems

合作研究：NSF-FO：整个线虫个体神经系统的真实分析和建模

• 批准号: 1734821
• 负责人: Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
• 金额: $ 23.75万
• 依托单位: Northeastern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1734821&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; NSF; FO; Ground

How does the brain compute? Understanding this process could lead to many advances in science and technology. The Boyden, Flavell, Barabasi, and Tegmark groups propose to examine how the cells within the brain of a simple animal work together to generate the computations that underlie behavior. The teams will study C. elegans, a small worm with just a few hundred neurons, yet capable of learning and adaptive behavior in complex real-world environments.  The teams will apply new technologies to measure and control the neural circuits of C. elegans, in order to investigate how they works. The project will also generate new mathematical tools to analyze the data that is collected - tools that could help analyze how the brain goes wrong in disorders such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. Using the data acquired, the project will reveal how brain circuits compute, which could inspire new algorithms for machine learning and computer information processing. These in turn could have broad impact on economic prosperity as well as in advancing human quality of life. The Boyden, Flavell, Barabasi, and Tegmark groups will launch a novel integrative endeavor to reveal how entire nervous systems - from sensory input neurons, to motor output neurons, and including the networks that underlie learning, decision making, and other processes - work together as emergent wholes to generate the computations that underlie behavior. They will utilize C. elegans, with just 302 neurons, yet capable of learning and adaptive behavior in complex real-world environments.  They will optimize and deploy novel technologies, including a new fluorescent voltage indicator for C. elegans, and a method for 3-D visualization of entire nervous systems with molecular information via physical expansion by up to 10,000 fold in volume. They will record neural and behavioral dynamics, imaging the activity of neurons throughout entire brains and even entire nervous systems of freely moving as well as fictively behaving C. elegans engaged in complex decision-making tasks, or forming new memories. They will then use expansion microscopy to map the structure and molecular profiles of entire individual nervous systems. They will analyze the resultant network structures to determine how individual variation in these features connect to details of an individual's behavior, and make mathematical models of the relevant neural circuits capable of predicting how the nervous system would respond in complex contexts. The outcome of their work will yield radical new theories of how nervous systems operate, as well as a diversity of tools for the neuroscience and computational communities.This project is funded by Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems (NSF-NCS), a multidisciplinary program jointly supported by the Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE).

大脑如何进行计算？了解这一过程可能会带来科学和技术方面的许多进步，他们提议研究简单动物大脑中的细胞如何协同工作来生成计算基础。这些团队将研究线虫，这是一种只有几百个神经元的小蠕虫，但能够在复杂的现实环境中学习和适应行为。这些团队将应用新技术来测量和控制线虫的神经回路。该项目还将生成新的数学工具来分析收集到的数据，这些工具可以帮助分析大脑在帕金森氏症或阿尔茨海默氏症等疾病中如何出错。该项目将揭示大脑回路的计算方式，从而激发机器学习和计算机信息处理的新算法，从而对经济繁荣以及提高人类生活质量产生广泛影响。团体将推出这是一项新颖的综合性努力，旨在揭示整个神经系统（从感觉输入神经元到运动输出神经元，包括构成学习、决策和其他过程的网络）如何作为新兴整体协同工作，以生成行为背后的计算。利用只有 302 个神经元的线虫，但能够在复杂的现实环境中学习和适应行为。他们将优化和部署新技术，包括线虫的新荧光电压指示器，以及一种用于线虫的方法。通过物理扩展高达 10,000 倍的体积，对整个神经系统进行分子信息的 3D 可视化。它们将记录神经和行为动力学，对整个大脑甚至自由移动和虚拟的整个神经系统的神经元活动进行成像。然后，线虫会进行复杂的决策任务，或者形成新的记忆，然后他们将使用扩展显微镜来绘制整个个体神经系统的结构和分子图谱，他们将分析由此产生的网络结构，以确定这些神经系统的个体差异。特征与个人行为的细节相关联，并使相关神经回路的数学模型能够预测神经系统在复杂环境中的反应，他们的工作成果将产生关于神经系统如何运作以及如何运作的全新理论。神经科学和计算社区的多种工具。该项目由理解神经和认知系统的综合策略 (NSF-NCS) 资助，这是一个由计算机和信息科学与工程 (CISE)、教育理事会联合支持的多学科项目人力资源 (EHR)、工程 (ENG) 以及社会、行为和经济科学 (SBE)。