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Related Concept Videos

Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway01:20

Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway

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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.
The olfactory...
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Olfaction01:25

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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.
The olfactory receptors are embedded in the cilia of the...
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Olfactory Receptors: Location and Structure01:03

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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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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 15, 2025

Imaging Odor-Evoked Activities in the Mouse Olfactory Bulb using Optical Reflectance and Autofluorescence Signals
08:30

Imaging Odor-Evoked Activities in the Mouse Olfactory Bulb using Optical Reflectance and Autofluorescence Signals

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Odor encoding by signals in the olfactory bulb.

Justus V Verhagen1,2, Keeley L Baker1,2, Ganesh Vasan1,2

  • 1The John B. Pierce Laboratory, New Haven, Connecticut.

Journal of Neurophysiology
|January 4, 2023
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Olfactory bulb glomeruli exhibit broad tuning and low odor information, limiting encoding capacity. Temporal coding offers little unique information, with most data available rapidly after sniff onset.

Keywords:
information encodingmouseolfactory bulbrate encodingtemporal encoding

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Olfactory System Research
  • Information Theory Application

Background:

  • Understanding olfactory system operation requires knowledge of olfactory bulb information encoding.
  • Presynaptic inputs in glomeruli are key to olfactory processing.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantify information encoding in the olfactory bulb using Shannon information theory.
  • To investigate odor information in mouse dorsal (dOB) and lateral (lOB) olfactory bulbs.

Main Methods:

  • Optical imaging of presynaptic inputs in up to 57 glomeruli simultaneously.
  • Application of Shannon information theoretic methods to analyze glomerular responses.
  • Stimulation with six exemplar pure chemical odors.

Main Results:

  • Glomerular tuning to odors is broad (mean sparseness 0.83, mean correlation 0.64), resulting in low odor information (1.35 bits/33 glomeruli).
  • Temporal coding provided minimal, redundant information compared to rate coding (0.11 bits).
  • Information availability was rapid (within 100 ms) and non-linear, indicating non-independent glomerular responses.

Conclusions:

  • The olfactory bulb population encodes limited information about odor identity due to broad tuning and correlated responses.
  • Temporal aspects of glomerular responses contribute little unique information.
  • Rapid information accrual post-inhalation highlights the importance of early olfactory processing stages.