Functional logic of neural circuits: diamonds in the rough

神经回路的功能逻辑：未加工的钻石

• 批准号: 2129444
• 负责人: Gal Haspel
• 金额: $ 4.95万
• 依托单位: New Jersey Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-05-15 至 2022-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2129444&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Functional; logic; neural; circuits; diamonds

One of the pressing challenges to understand large and complex nervous systems is to map how and for what purpose neurons communicate at the lowest level. One-way researchers have made great progress is by recording enormous amounts of information about the neuronal connections, circuits, neural activity, behavior and even genomic structure of smaller nervous systems of some model systems, such as the nematode, fruit fly, or zebrafish. However, all this detailed information has not yet led to satisfying and deeper insight into important questions relevant to understanding the human brain. For example, how do circuits of neurons process, encode, store, and retrieve information? To address such questions, it is important to develop conceptual and theoretical frameworks of the functional logic of brain circuits that go beyond the current computational models. This award will bring together neuroscience pioneers from different fields, including experimental, computational, and theoretical disciplines to define the most important topics and questions to address this challenge.The organizers will produce and lead a workshop on the Functional Logic of Neural Circuits. The workshop will take place in two phases, a virtual meeting followed by an in-person meeting four months later, in Puerto Rico. In the first phase, the participants will bring up questions and map out the gap among the diverse fields intersecting these disciplines. They will collect ideas from diverse researchers, gauge interest, and solicit feedback and collective input from forward thinkers in these areas to lay ground for the second phase. In a second phase, participants will identify concrete research directions and opportunities that, if pursued, can initiate new conceptual developments that will lead to new breakthroughs in our understanding of the functional logic of neural circuits. The specific topic of the workshop, namely the functional logic of neural circuits offers an opportunity to impact not just our understanding of nervous systems, large or small, but also inform the development of artificial systems with the robustness and flexibility of living organisms. Finally, this workshop aims to not only bring together scientists to identify difficult problems at interdisciplinary interfaces, but to also train a young and diverse generation of diverse scientists to collaborate at the frontiers of neuroscience.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.

了解大型而复杂的神经系统面临的紧迫挑战之一是绘制神经元在最低级别上如何通信以及出于什么目的进行通信的图谱。研究人员取得巨大进展的一种方法是记录一些模型系统（例如线虫、果蝇或斑马鱼）的神经元连接、回路、神经活动、行为甚至较小神经系统的基因组结构的大量信息。然而，所有这些详细信息尚未使人们对与理解人脑相关的重要问题产生令人满意和更深入的见解。例如，神经元电路如何处理、编码、存储和检索信息？为了解决这些问题，重要的是开发超越当前计算模型的脑回路功能逻辑的概念和理论框架。该奖项将汇集来自不同领域的神经科学先驱，包括实验、计算和理论学科，以确定应对这一挑战的最重要的主题和问题。组织者将组织并领导一个关于神经回路功能逻辑的研讨会。该研讨会将分两个阶段进行，首先是虚拟会议，然后是四个月后在波多黎各举行的面对面会议。在第一阶段，参与者将提出问题并找出这些学科交叉的不同领域之间的差距。他们将从不同的研究人员那里收集想法，衡量兴趣，并征求这些领域的前瞻性思想家的反馈和集体意见，为第二阶段奠定基础。在第二阶段，参与者将确定具体的研究方向和机会，如果遵循这些方向和机会，可以启动新的概念发展，从而在我们对神经回路功能逻辑的理解上取得新的突破。研讨会的具体主题，即神经回路的功能逻辑，不仅提供了一个机会影响我们对神经系统（无论大小）的理解，而且还为具有生物体的鲁棒性和灵活性的人工系统的发展提供了信息。最后，本次研讨会的目的不仅是让科学家们齐聚一堂，共同识别跨学科交叉领域的难题，还旨在培养年轻且多元化的一代科学家在神经科学的前沿进行合作。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为是值得的。通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来获得支持。