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Olfaction

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...

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Coding odor identity and odor value in awake rodents.

Alexia Nunez-Parra¹, Anan Li², Diego Restrepo¹

¹Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center and Neuroscience Program, University of Colorado Medical School, Aurora, CO, USA.

Progress in Brain Research

|April 29, 2014

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Awake rodent recordings reveal distinct olfactory bulb and piriform cortex activity for odor detection. Mitral cell responses encode odor identity, sniff phase, and even odor value (reward association).

Keywords:

anesthetized awake behaving olfaction olfactory bulb piriform cortex sniff

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Olfactory System Research
Sensory Processing

Background:

Recent advances in neuroscience have reshaped the understanding of the olfactory system.
Awake behaving recording in rodents has been pivotal in these discoveries.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the significant changes in understanding odor detection.
To highlight the role of the olfactory bulb and piriform cortex in awake rodents.

Main Methods:

Review of studies utilizing awake behaving recording techniques in rodents.
Analysis of electrophysiological recordings from olfactory bulb and piriform cortex neurons.
Incorporation of sniff recording data.

Main Results:

Odor responses in mitral and granule cells differ significantly between anesthetized and awake states.
Mitral cell responses encode odor identity and sniff phase during naturalistic sniffing.
Mitral cells also convey information about the reward value associated with an odor.

Conclusions:

Awake behaving recordings provide crucial insights into olfactory processing.
The olfactory bulb and piriform cortex play dynamic roles in odor perception.
Future research directions are suggested by the increased use of awake recording paradigms.