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Related Concept Videos

Olfaction01:25

Olfaction

The sense of smell is achieved through the activities of the olfactory system. It starts when an airborne odorant enters the nasal cavity and reaches olfactory epithelium (OE). The OE is protected by a thin layer of mucus, which also serves the purpose of dissolving more complex compounds into simpler chemical odorants. The size of the OE and the density of sensory neurons varies among species; in humans, the OE is only about 9-10 cm2.
The olfactory receptors are embedded in the cilia of the...
Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway01:20

Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway

Humans detect odors with the help of specialized cells located in the upper part of the nasal cavity, called olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). ORNs possess hair-like structures called cilia, which are receptive to sensations from the inhaled air. When an odorant molecule binds to a specific receptor on the cell of the cilia, it leads to a series of events that ultimately cause the ORN to send electrical signals to the olfactory bulb in the brain through the olfactory nerves.
The olfactory...
Neural Circuits01:25

Neural Circuits

Neural circuits and neuronal pools are two of the main structures found in the nervous system. Neural circuits are networks of neurons that work together to carry out a specific task or process. They consist of interconnected neurons and glial cells, which provide structural and metabolic support.
Neuronal pools are collections of nerve cells with similar functions and interact through chemical and electrical signals. These pools include both interneurons (the central neural circuit nodes that...
Electrical Synapses01:28

Electrical Synapses

Electrical synapses found in all nervous systems play important and unique roles. In these synapses, the presynaptic and postsynaptic membranes are very close together (3.5 nm) and are actually physically connected by channel proteins forming gap junctions.
Gap junctions allow the current to pass directly from one cell to the next. In contrast, in the chemical synapse, the neurotransmitters carry the information through the synaptic cleft from one neuron to the next. They consist of two...
The Role of Ion Channels in Neuronal Computation01:19

The Role of Ion Channels in Neuronal Computation

A postsynaptic neuron usually receives numerous impulses from several other presynaptic neurons. The axon hillock of the postsynaptic neuron integrates all these signals and determines the likelihood of firing an action potential.
Sometimes a single EPSP is strong enough to induce an action potential in the postsynaptic neuron. However, multiple presynaptic inputs must often create EPSPs around the same time for the postsynaptic neuron to be sufficiently depolarized to fire an action potential.
Chemical Synapses01:26

Chemical Synapses

Chemical synapses are specialized sites between two neurons or between a neuron and a non-neuronal cell like a muscle, glandular or sensory cell.
Because chemical synapses depend on the release of neurotransmitter molecules from synaptic vesicles to pass on their signal, there is an approximately one millisecond delay between when the axon potential reaches the presynaptic terminal and when the neurotransmitter leads to opening of postsynaptic ion channels. Additionally, this signaling is...

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Related Experiment Video

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Recording Temperature-induced Neuronal Activity through Monitoring Calcium Changes in the Olfactory Bulb of Xenopus laevis
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Implementation of olfactory bulb glomerular-layer computations in a digital neurosynaptic core.

Nabil Imam1, Thomas A Cleland, Rajit Manohar

  • 1Computer Systems Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University Ithaca, NY, USA.

Frontiers in Neuroscience
|June 12, 2012
PubMed
Summary

This study introduces a biomimetic neuromorphic chip that mimics the mammalian olfactory bulb's glomerular layer. The system efficiently decorrelates odor representations for advanced artificial chemical sensing.

Keywords:
AERartificial chemical sensingbiomimeticdigital neuronneuromorphicneurosynaptic coreolfactionsmall-world

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Biomimetics

Background:

  • The glomerular layer of the mammalian olfactory bulb processes olfactory information, notably decorrelating similar odor representations.
  • Understanding these neural mechanisms is crucial for developing advanced artificial olfactory systems.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a biomimetic system replicating the functional properties of the olfactory bulb's glomerular layer.
  • To create a low-power artificial chemical sensing system inspired by natural olfaction.

Main Methods:

  • A digital neuromorphic chip with 256 leaky-integrate-and-fire neurons and 1024×256 crossbar synapses was designed.
  • Neural circuits mimicked the connections between mitral cells, periglomerular cells, external tufted cells, and short-axon cells.
  • Convergent olfactory sensory neurons provided input to the chip's circuits.

Main Results:

  • The biomimetic system demonstrated functional transformations comparable to the mammalian olfactory bulb's glomerular layer.
  • The system achieved odor representation decorrelation without prior knowledge of analyte feature distributions.
  • The neuromorphic circuits operated at a low active power of 45 pJ per spike with a 0.85 V supply.

Conclusions:

  • The developed neuromorphic system effectively replicates key functions of the olfactory bulb's glomerular layer.
  • This technology offers a promising first-stage processing solution for low-power artificial chemical sensing devices.
  • The biomimetic approach advances the development of artificial olfactory systems inspired by nature.