full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Michael Dickinson: How a fly flies
Unscramble the Blue Letters
But let's think about this. How can you make a small number of neurons do a lot? And I think, from an eenreinigng ppvsrtieece, you think of multiplexing. You can take a hardware and have that hardware do different things at different times, or have different parts of the hardware doing different things. And these are the two cpoetcns I'd like to explore. And they're not concepts that I've come up with, but concepts that have been porpesod by others in the past.
And one idea comes from lessons from chewing crabs. And I don't mean chewing the crabs. I grew up in Baltimore, and I chew crabs very, very well. But I'm talking about the cbars actually doing the chewing. Crab chewing is actually really fascinating. Crabs have this complicated structure under their carapace called the gastric mill that grinds their food in a variety of different ways. And here's an endoscopic movie of this sutcurtre. The amazing thing about this is that it's controlled by a really tiny set of neurons, about two dozen neurons that can produce a vast vartiey of different motor patterns, and the reason it can do this is that this little tiny gangolin in the crab is actually inundated by many, many neuromodulators. You heard about neuromodulators earlier. There are more nmaeorodoutlurs that alter, that innervate this structure than actually neurons in the structure, and they're able to generate a cepmtcailod set of patretns. And this is the work by Eve meradr and her many cluolegeas who've been studying this fascinating sytesm that show how a smaellr cluster of neurons can do many, many, many things because of neuromodulation that can take place on a moment-by-moment basis. So this is basically multiplexing in time. Imagine a network of neurons with one neuromodulator. You select one set of clels to perform one sort of behavior, another nduooloeuamrtr, another set of cells, a different pattern, and you can imagine you could extrapolate to a very, very complicated system.
Open Cloze
But let's think about this. How can you make a small number of neurons do a lot? And I think, from an ___________ ___________, you think of multiplexing. You can take a hardware and have that hardware do different things at different times, or have different parts of the hardware doing different things. And these are the two ________ I'd like to explore. And they're not concepts that I've come up with, but concepts that have been ________ by others in the past.
And one idea comes from lessons from chewing crabs. And I don't mean chewing the crabs. I grew up in Baltimore, and I chew crabs very, very well. But I'm talking about the _____ actually doing the chewing. Crab chewing is actually really fascinating. Crabs have this complicated structure under their carapace called the gastric mill that grinds their food in a variety of different ways. And here's an endoscopic movie of this _________. The amazing thing about this is that it's controlled by a really tiny set of neurons, about two dozen neurons that can produce a vast _______ of different motor patterns, and the reason it can do this is that this little tiny ________ in the crab is actually inundated by many, many neuromodulators. You heard about neuromodulators earlier. There are more _______________ that alter, that innervate this structure than actually neurons in the structure, and they're able to generate a ___________ set of ________. And this is the work by Eve ______ and her many __________ who've been studying this fascinating ______ that show how a _______ cluster of neurons can do many, many, many things because of neuromodulation that can take place on a moment-by-moment basis. So this is basically multiplexing in time. Imagine a network of neurons with one neuromodulator. You select one set of _____ to perform one sort of behavior, another ______________, another set of cells, a different pattern, and you can imagine you could extrapolate to a very, very complicated system.
Solution
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- system
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- patterns
- engineering
- structure
- cells
- marder
- neuromodulator
- proposed
- colleagues
- variety
- crabs
- ganglion
- perspective
- neuromodulators
- concepts
Original Text
But let's think about this. How can you make a small number of neurons do a lot? And I think, from an engineering perspective, you think of multiplexing. You can take a hardware and have that hardware do different things at different times, or have different parts of the hardware doing different things. And these are the two concepts I'd like to explore. And they're not concepts that I've come up with, but concepts that have been proposed by others in the past.
And one idea comes from lessons from chewing crabs. And I don't mean chewing the crabs. I grew up in Baltimore, and I chew crabs very, very well. But I'm talking about the crabs actually doing the chewing. Crab chewing is actually really fascinating. Crabs have this complicated structure under their carapace called the gastric mill that grinds their food in a variety of different ways. And here's an endoscopic movie of this structure. The amazing thing about this is that it's controlled by a really tiny set of neurons, about two dozen neurons that can produce a vast variety of different motor patterns, and the reason it can do this is that this little tiny ganglion in the crab is actually inundated by many, many neuromodulators. You heard about neuromodulators earlier. There are more neuromodulators that alter, that innervate this structure than actually neurons in the structure, and they're able to generate a complicated set of patterns. And this is the work by Eve Marder and her many colleagues who've been studying this fascinating system that show how a smaller cluster of neurons can do many, many, many things because of neuromodulation that can take place on a moment-by-moment basis. So this is basically multiplexing in time. Imagine a network of neurons with one neuromodulator. You select one set of cells to perform one sort of behavior, another neuromodulator, another set of cells, a different pattern, and you can imagine you could extrapolate to a very, very complicated system.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
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nervous system |
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great model |
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behavioral repertoire |
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tiny neurons |
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tiny ganglion |
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malcolm burrows |
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action potentials |
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