Research
Temporal Information
Cognitive Science Projects in the Levin Lab
- Body cells
- Memory Storage outside the brain
- Sensing & remembering target morphology
- Brain and CNS
- Plasticity of interface to ectopic sensory and motor organs
- Communication between two brains in the same body
- Neural (long-range) control of morphogenesis
- Information processing & computation
- Information processing models of physiological signaling networks
- Modeling patterning systems as primitive cognitive agents
- Symbolic Al methods to infer patterning mechanisms
The Properties of Memory Storage and Transmission in Tissue:
Flatworms can learn in a variety of behavioral paradigms and
are a unique model system in which regeneration and memory can be studied in the
same animal. In partnership with
Boston Engineering,
we have designed and built a computer-controlled automated learning and testing
chamber that allows the training of a set of worms in a consistent environment
(removing sources of error such as experimenter bias, and greatly increasing the
efficiency of the learning process). By combining a robust learning/memory
response with experiments feasible only in this highly-regenerative model
system, we are investigating the molecular basis of memory. Using quantitative,
automated behavior analysis
techniques we are
asking how and where information is encoded and how it can be imprinted upon the
regenerating brain by other tissues.
Our parallelized machine vision and
environmental control platform is a unique next-generation system allowing not
only quantitative characterization of animal behavior (worm, tadpole, and zebrafish) but real-time reward/punishment feedback to each individual subject
independently, allowing powerful learning and instrumental/classical
conditioning assays. A scaled-up version of this technology will allow
high-throughput screening of small molecule libraries for complex neuroactive
effects (such as nootropic compounds that increase learning rate, modulate
addiction, etc.). In vertebrate systems such as tadpoles, we are investigating
the cognitive consequences of laterality inversion and brain plasticity in the context
of altered CNS topology or addition of ectopic sensory/motor organs.
The
ability to manipulate large-scale anatomy using our unique
bioelectric reagents offers an excellent opportunity to study the
plasticity and dynamic properties of the brain-body interface. In
organisms with ectopic sense organs or limbs, how does the brain
recognize the presence of these extraneous (and evolutionarily
unexpected) structures, and how does it incorporate their data and
abilities into functional behavioral programs? We are currently
pursuing this question using behavioral and neurophysiological
analysis of tadpoles with extra eyes in the flank and other regions.
Understanding the means by which the CNS recognizes tissues in
aberrant locations will enrich fields such as sensory augmentation,
regenerative repair of injury, brain plasticity, morphogenetic
surveillance during pattern formation, and synthetic
biology/bioengineering.
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