Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 153-8904, Japan,
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2013 Nov;199(11):1037-52. doi: 10.1007/s00359-013-0832-8. Epub 2013 Jun 8.
To elucidate the dynamic information processing in a brain underlying adaptive behavior, it is necessary to understand the behavior and corresponding neural activities. This requires animals which have clear relationships between behavior and corresponding neural activities. Insects are precisely such animals and one of the adaptive behaviors of insects is high-accuracy odor source orientation. The most direct way to know the relationships between neural activity and behavior is by recording neural activities in a brain from freely behaving insects. There is also a method to give stimuli mimicking the natural environment to tethered insects allowing insects to walk or fly at the same position. In addition to these methods an 'insect-machine hybrid system' is proposed, which is another experimental system meeting the conditions necessary for approaching the dynamic processing in the brain of insects for generating adaptive behavior. This insect-machine hybrid system is an experimental system which has a mobile robot as its body. The robot is controlled by the insect through its behavior or the neural activities recorded from the brain. As we can arbitrarily control the motor output of the robot, we can intervene at the relationship between the insect and the environmental conditions.
为了阐明适应行为背后大脑中的动态信息处理，有必要了解行为和相应的神经活动。这需要具有明确的行为与相应神经活动之间关系的动物。昆虫恰恰就是这样的动物，而昆虫的一种适应行为是高精度的气味源定向。了解神经活动与行为之间关系的最直接方法是从自由活动的昆虫中记录大脑中的神经活动。还有一种方法是给被束缚的昆虫模拟自然环境的刺激，让昆虫在同一位置行走或飞行。除了这些方法之外，还提出了一种“昆虫-机器混合系统”，这是另一种满足接近昆虫产生适应性行为的大脑中动态处理的必要条件的实验系统。这种昆虫-机器混合系统是一种实验系统，其本体是一个移动机器人。机器人通过昆虫的行为或从大脑中记录的神经活动来控制。由于我们可以任意控制机器人的电机输出，我们可以干预昆虫与环境条件之间的关系。
