NCS-FO: Collaborative Research: Developing Underwater EEG Electrodes for Octopus Research

NCS-FO：合作研究：开发用于章鱼研究的水下脑电图电极

• 批准号: 1844589
• 负责人: Peter Tse
• 金额: $ 16万
• 依托单位: Dartmouth College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1844589&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NCS; FO; Collaborative; Research; Developing

The octopus is a social animal, with high intelligence and problem-solving skills, that is very distant from humans in terms of its evolution. This project aims to fabricate neuroelectric sensors and experimental protocols that would enable studying visual and higher level cognitive processes in the octopus while they are engaged in natural behaviors in an underwater environment. This will necessitate development of new engineering solutions for crafting electroencephalography (EEG) sensors that can record signal underwater, new solutions for removing noise artifacts from these highly complicated recordings, as well as careful design of experiments that could study such behaviors in a virtual-reality environment. While the brain of the octopus is very different from that of the human, it does support well-defined cognitive functions. Therefore, understanding whether and how octopuses' brains implement processes such as learning, attention, habituation, and surprise can produce new and important understandings of how neurobiological systems can support function. This research might reveal that the neural substrates of cognitive function in the octopus are organized according to principles that differ drastically from those found in in humans.This EAGER project has several aims. It will develop the first underwater EEG, first testing well-validated paradigms on humans performing task underwater and benchmarking against known waveforms. The electrodes will be constructed so that they do not corrode in salt water. It will also develop high-quality virtual reality stimulation that could impact octopuses' behavior in an underwater environment. It will utilize EEG frequency-tagging techniques to determine processing of environmental stimulus by the octopus. This will allow studying whether octopuses present characteristic responses that are analogous to surprise, adaptation, working memory and attention effects (in primates and other vertebrates). The study will also allow answering how and in what manner do octopuses sleep. All data, artifacts and modeling software will be made publicly available and constitute an important resource for the community. The results of this study could impact our general understanding of how brains support complex cognitive functions, with direct relevance to artificial intelligence efforts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

章鱼是一种社交动物，具有高智力和解决问题的技能，就其进化而言与人类非常遥远。 该项目旨在制造神经电传感器和实验方案，以使章鱼在水下环境中从事自然行为时，可以研究视觉和更高水平的认知过程。这将需要开发用于制作脑电图（EEG）传感器的新工程解决方案，这些传感器可以记录水下信号，这是从这些高度复杂的录音中删除噪声伪像的新解决方案，以及对可以在虚拟真实环境中研究此类行为的仔细设计。尽管章鱼的大脑与人的大脑截然不同，但它确实支持了明确定义的认知功能。因此，了解章鱼的大脑是否以及如何实施诸如学习，注意力，习惯和惊喜之类的过程都可以对神经生物学系统如何支持功能产生新的重要理解。 这项研究可能表明，章鱼中认知功能的神经底物是根据与人类中发现的原则截然不同的原则组织的。这个急切的项目具有多种目标。它将开发第一个水下脑电图，首先测试对人类在水下执行任务和针对已知波形进行基准测试的范围的范式。电极将被构造，以便它们不会在盐水中腐蚀。它还将发展高质量的虚拟现实刺激，可能会影响水下环境中章鱼的行为。它将利用脑电图频率引人注目的技术来确定章鱼对环境刺激的处理。这将允许研究章鱼是否具有类似于惊喜，适应，工作记忆和注意力效应的特征反应（在灵长类动物和其他脊椎动物中）。这项研究还将允许回答章鱼睡眠的方式和方式。所有数据，工件和建模软件都将公开可用，并构成社区的重要资源。这项研究的结果可能会影响我们对大脑如何支持复杂认知功能的一般理解，并与人工智能工作直接相关。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的评估评估的评估来支持的。