Periodic Reporting for period 4 - BrainInBrain (Neural circuits underlying complex brain function across animals - from conserved core concepts to specializations defining a species’ identity)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-07-01 al 2022-08-31
The second part of our work aimed at illuminating goal encoding during path integration. Using a new behavioral paradigm, we demonstrated that bumblebees use path integration while walking over distances of less than two meters instead of hundreds of meters during flight and that their vector memories (goals) were highly resilient to disturbances (Patel et al., 2022). Importantly, the method can be expanded to study more complex forms of vector navigation, including potential cognitive maps. To make these behaviors and vector memories accessible to electrophysiology, we translated the paradigm from freely walking bees into a virtual reality setup, enabling multi-electrode recordings during behavior.
Third, on the output side of the CX, while connectomics data revealed that the computations underlying the initiation of steering commands are likely adapted to the movement strategies of a species (Sayre et al 2021), a model of the premotor command center downstream of the CX predicting a single steering pathway shared between many behaviors (Adden et al, 2022). Combining results from all stages of the project, we have constructed an overarching computational CX model that covers all processing steps from sensory input to motor output (Goulard et al., in prep.). This model provides the detailed computational framework that was the main goal of the project. Finally, besides generating new methods and results, we also created a transparent, open science tool to deposit, manage and share all data resulting from this project: the InsectBrainDatabase (www.insectbraindb.org; Heinze et al, 2021).
Finally, the data generated by this project have sparked an unexpected collaboration between nanotechnology, computer science and insect neurobiology. This collaboration has grown into an EIC funded consortium across five European countries, aiming at developing a novel form of neuromorphic computers, inspired by our anatomically constrained CX models (Winge et al., 2020). Due to their very small physical footprint and an energy consumption on the level of biological brains, these devices are highly relevant for the development of more sustainable computer technology.