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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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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 17, 2025

An Objective and Reproducible Test of Olfactory Learning and Discrimination in Mice
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Cortical feedback and gating in odor discrimination and generalization.

Gaia Tavoni1,2,3, David E Chen Kersen1,4, Vijay Balasubramanian1,2,4,5

  • 1Computational Neuroscience Initiative, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.

Plos Computational Biology
|October 11, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Contextual changes in perception, particularly in the olfactory system, are explained by a new statistical model. This model uses central brain feedback to the olfactory bulb to explain how task demands influence odor responses for discrimination and generalization.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Olfactory System Research
  • Computational Neuroscience

Background:

  • Context significantly influences sensory perception, especially in the olfactory system.
  • Task demands can alter cortical odor responses, affecting olfactory discrimination and generalization.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a statistical mechanism explaining how context modulates olfactory perception.
  • To model the effects of central brain feedback and cortical gating on olfactory processing.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a simple statistical model incorporating unstructured feedback from the central brain to the olfactory bulb.
  • Incorporated selective cortical gating of sensory inputs into the model.

Main Results:

  • The model predicts that both convergence and divergence of cortical odor patterns increase with initial odor similarity.
  • This prediction aligns with findings from recent experimental studies.

Conclusions:

  • The proposed mechanism provides a framework for understanding context-dependent olfactory perception.
  • The theory predicts further experimental outcomes, including reversals of observed trends and effects in neurological conditions.