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Olfaction

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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.
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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.
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The process of olfaction, also known as the sense of smell, is a sophisticated chemical response system. The specialized sensory neurons that facilitate this process, known as olfactory receptor neurons, are situated in an upper segment of the nasal cavity, known as the olfactory epithelium. Olfactory sensory neurons are bipolar, with their dendrites extending from the epithelium's apex into the mucus that lines the nasal cavity. Airborne molecules, when inhaled, traverse the olfactory...

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Coding odorant concentration through activation timing between the medial and lateral olfactory bulb.

Zhishang Zhou¹, Leonardo Belluscio

¹Developmental Neural Plasticity Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, 35 Convent Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-3703, USA.

|November 22, 2012

Summary

Mammalian olfactory bulbs use timing differences between medial and lateral regions to encode odor concentration. Higher concentrations lead to more synchronized neural activity, aiding odor perception in the olfactory cortex.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Olfactory System Research
Sensory Coding

Background:

Mammalian olfactory bulbs (OB) possess mirror-symmetric glomerular maps.
The functional role of these medial-lateral maps is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the functional implications of medial-lateral OB organization.
To explore how odorant concentration is represented by neural activity timing.

Main Methods:

In vivo multielectrode recordings were used to monitor OB activity.
Odorant-induced activity and onset latencies were measured across the entire OB.

Main Results:

A distinct timing difference in odorant-evoked onset latencies was observed between medial and lateral OB halves.
Latency changes varied with odorant concentration, diminishing the timing difference at higher concentrations.
Medial and lateral OB output neurons exhibited increased firing synchrony at elevated odorant concentrations.

Conclusions:

Temporal differences in medial and lateral OB activity dynamically code odorant concentration.
Synchronous action potential integration in the olfactory cortex likely decodes this concentration information.