The Neural Basis of Interspecies Interactions

About This Grant

PROJECT SUMMARY Animals live in an interconnected social world and must interact adaptively with other organisms. Such interactions require translating complex multisensory profiles of other animals into appropriate behavioral responses. How the nervous system integrates socially relevant multisensory information to build internal representations of others and enact ecologically relevant behaviors is largely unknown. The goal of this project is to elucidate behavioral computations and neural mechanisms that organisms use to integrate salient multisensory features of other animals. I will use the rove beetle species, Dalotia coriaria, a newly developed genetically and experimentally tractable system. Dalotia is highly suited to investigate multisensory mechanisms that enable social interactions because 1) it is genetically amenable to neural manipulation and has a relatively small brain, and 2) possess a highly flexible abdomen that it engages during a variety of animal social interactions. The movement of its abdomen is a major, yet simple to observe and quantify, behavioral readout of the neural decision-making processes that occur when the beetle encounters different types of animals. I will first use three-dimensional tracking and novel machine learning approaches, such as neurosymbolic artificial intelligence, to classify the behavioral modules and stereotyped response patterns of Dalotia while interacting with a range of other species. I will then use a “beetle-on-a-ball” virtual reality setup to deconstruct the chemical and tactile sensory components of each organism and define the integration rules the describe how behavior is altered in unisensory verse multisensory conditions. Next, I will use gas chromatography electroantennogram recordings and in vivo 2-photon calcium imaging from the brain to identify multisensory representations of other species. Using an interdisciplinary approach, cutting-edge machine learning and computational ethology methods, and simultaneous neural and behavioral recordings, this project will uncover how animals build representations of other organisms from complex multisensory profiles. I will receive interdisciplinary technical and conceptual training from an advisory team of experts in the fields of neuroethology, chemical ecology, machine learning, and electrophysiology, which will prepare me for a successful transition to independent investigator.