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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...

Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway

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...

Olfactory Receptors: Location and Structure

Olfactory Receptors: Location and Structure

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 1, 2025

A Lateralized Odor Learning Model in Neonatal Rats for Dissecting Neural Circuitry Underpinning Memory Formation

A Lateralized Odor Learning Model in Neonatal Rats for Dissecting Neural Circuitry Underpinning Memory Formation

Published on: August 18, 2014

Experience-dependent evolution of odor mixture representations in piriform cortex.

Alice Berners-Lee¹, Elizabeth Shtrahman¹, Julien Grimaud^1,2

¹Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.

|April 25, 2023

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Mice learn odor discrimination through the posterior piriform cortex (pPC). Neurons in the pPC become more selective for target odors with training, enhancing decision-making and adapting to new tasks.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Olfactory learning
Decision-making

Background:

The piriform cortex is crucial for olfactory learning and odor discrimination.
Understanding how the piriform cortex represents and learns complex odor mixtures is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate neural representations of odor mixtures in the posterior piriform cortex (pPC) during odor discrimination learning.
To understand how neuronal activity in the pPC adapts to overtraining and task demands.

Main Methods:

Recording single-unit activity in the pPC of mice during an odor discrimination task.
Analyzing neuronal responses to target and nontarget odor mixtures.
Assessing population-level decoding and behavioral performance.

Main Results:

A significant portion of pPC neurons discriminated target odor mixtures from nontargets.
Target-preferring neurons showed distinct firing patterns (brief increase at onset).
Overtraining increased neuronal selectivity and improved population decoding, correlating with performance on difficult trials.

Conclusions:

The pPC dynamically adapts to optimize performance for current and future olfactory discrimination tasks.
Neuronal plasticity in the pPC supports robust and flexible odor-based decision-making.
pPC neural representations are refined through experience to enhance task demands.