scholarly journals Olfactory Optogenetics: Light Illuminates the Chemical Sensing Mechanisms of Biological Olfactory Systems

Biosensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 309
Author(s):  
Ping Zhu ◽  
Yulan Tian ◽  
Yating Chen ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Ping Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Olfactory System ◽  
Chemical Sensing ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Neuron Activity ◽  
Technical Approach ◽  
Odor Coding ◽  
Olfactory Systems ◽  
Specific Part

The mammalian olfactory system has an amazing ability to distinguish thousands of odorant molecules at the trace level. Scientists have made great achievements on revealing the olfactory sensing mechanisms in decades; even though many issues need addressing. Optogenetics provides a novel technical approach to solve this dilemma by utilizing light to illuminate specific part of the olfactory system; which can be used in all corners of the olfactory system for revealing the olfactory mechanism. This article reviews the most recent advances in olfactory optogenetics devoted to elucidate the mechanisms of chemical sensing. It thus attempts to introduce olfactory optogenetics according to the structure of the olfactory system. It mainly includes the following aspects: the sensory input from the olfactory epithelium to the olfactory bulb; the influences of the olfactory bulb (OB) neuron activity patterns on olfactory perception; the regulation between the olfactory cortex and the olfactory bulb; and the neuromodulation participating in odor coding by dominating the olfactory bulb. Finally; current challenges and future development trends of olfactory optogenetics are proposed and discussed.

scholarly journals An update on anatomy and function of the teleost olfactory system

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesús Olivares ◽  
Oliver Schmachtenberg
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory System ◽  
Olfactory Receptor Neurons ◽  
Odorant Receptors ◽  
Odor Coding ◽  
Animal Group ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Olfactory Systems ◽  
Receptor Neurons ◽  
Olfactory Organs ◽  
And Function

About half of all extant vertebrates are teleost fishes. Although our knowledge about anatomy and function of their olfactory systems still lags behind that of mammals, recent advances in cellular and molecular biology have provided us with a wealth of novel information about the sense of smell in this important animal group. Its paired olfactory organs contain up to five types of olfactory receptor neurons expressing OR, TAAR, VR1- and VR2-class odorant receptors associated with individual transduction machineries. The different types of receptor neurons are preferentially tuned towards particular classes of odorants, that are associated with specific behaviors, such as feeding, mating or migration. We discuss the connections of the receptor neurons in the olfactory bulb, the differences in bulbar circuitry compared to mammals, and the characteristics of second order projections to telencephalic olfactory areas, considering the everted ontogeny of the teleost telencephalon. The review concludes with a brief overview of current theories about odor coding and the prominent neural oscillations observed in the teleost olfactory system.

Odor Code Sensor and Odor Reproduction

2012 ◽  
pp. 457-470
Author(s):  
Kenshi Hayashi
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Odor Coding ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Olfactory Systems ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Molecular Information ◽  
Odor Receptors

In biological olfactory systems, odor receptors receive odor molecules by recognizing the molecular information. Humans can sense the odor by the signal from these activated receptors. The combination of the activated receptors is called “odor code,” and the odor codes are expressed as an “odor cluster map” of glomeruli on the olfactory bulb surface. The odor code is essential information for qualitative and quantitative analyses of odor sensation. In this chapter, development of odor sensors based on the odor code concept and an attempt to extract the parameters for odor coding from molecular informatics are described. Application of the obtained odor code for odor reproduction is also presented.

scholarly journals Input dependent modulation of olfactory bulb activity by GABAergic basal forebrain projections

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Böhm ◽  
Daniela Brunert ◽  
Markus Rothermel
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Basal Forebrain ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Neuron Activity ◽  
Differential Modulation ◽  
Cholinergic Basal Forebrain ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Cholinergic Projections

AbstractBasal forebrain modulation of central circuits is associated with active sensation, attention and learning. While cholinergic modulations have been studied extensively the effect of non-cholinergic basal forebrain subpopulations on sensory processing remains largely unclear. Here, we directly compare optogenetic manipulation effects of two major basal forebrain subpopulations on principal neuron activity in an early sensory processing area, i.e. mitral/tufted cells (MTCs) in the olfactory bulb. In contrast to cholinergic projections, which consistently increased MTC firing, activation of GABAergic fibers from basal forebrain to the olfactory bulb lead to differential modulation effects: while spontaneous MTC activity is mainly inhibited, odor evoked firing is predominantly enhanced. Moreover, sniff triggered averages revealed an enhancement of maximal sniff evoked firing amplitude and an inhibition of firing rates outside the maximal sniff phase. These findings demonstrate that GABAergic neuromodulation affects MTC firing in a bimodal, sensory-input dependent way, suggesting that GABAergic basal forebrain modulation could be an important factor in attention mediated filtering of sensory information to the brain.

scholarly journals A transformation from temporal to ensemble coding in a model of piriform cortex

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merav Stern ◽  
Kevin A. Bolding ◽  
L.F. Abbott ◽  
Kevin M. Franks
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Olfactory System ◽  
Feedback Inhibition ◽  
Piriform Cortex ◽  
Odor Coding ◽  
System A ◽  
Coding Strategies ◽  
Concentration Changes ◽  
Recurrent Collateral ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTDifferent coding strategies are used to represent odor information at various stages of the mammalian olfactory system. A temporal latency code represents odor identity in olfactory bulb (OB), but this temporal information is discarded in piriform cortex (PCx) where odor identity is instead encoded through ensemble membership. We developed a spiking PCx network model to understand how this transformation is implemented. In the model, the impact of OB inputs activated earliest after inhalation is amplified within PCx by diffuse recurrent collateral excitation, which then recruits strong, sustained feedback inhibition that suppresses the impact of later-responding glomeruli. Simultaneous OB-PCx recordings indicate that indeed, over a single sniff, the earliest-active OB inputs are most effective at driving PCx activity. We model increasing odor concentrations by decreasing glomerulus onset latencies while preserving their activation sequences. This produces a multiplexed cortical odor code in which activated ensembles are robust to concentration changes while concentration information is encoded through population synchrony. Our model demonstrates how PCx circuitry can implement multiplexed ensemble-identity/temporal-concentration odor coding.

scholarly journals Zonal organization of the mammalian main and accessory olfactory systems

2000 ◽  
Vol 355 (1404) ◽  
pp. 1801-1812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kensaku Mori ◽  
Harald von Campenhausen ◽  
Yoshihiro Yoshihara
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Sensory Neurons ◽  
Olfactory System ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Odorant Receptors ◽  
Accessory Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Basal Zone ◽  
Olfactory Systems ◽  
Tufted Cells ◽  
Zonal Organization

Zonal organization is one of the characteristic features observed in both main and accessory olfactory systems. In the main olfactory system, most of the odorant receptors are classified into four groups according to their zonal expression patterns in the olfactory epithelium. Each group of odorant receptors is expressed by sensory neurons distributed within one of four circumscribed zones. Olfactory sensory neurons in a given zone of the epithelium project their axons to the glomeruli in a corresponding zone of the main olfactory bulb. Glomeruli in the same zone tend to represent similar odorant receptors having similar tuning specificity to odorants. Vomeronasal receptors (or pheromone receptors) are classified into two groups in the accessory olfactory system. Each group of receptors is expressed by vomeronasal sensory neurons in either the apical or basal zone of the vomeronasal epithelium. Sensory neurons in the apical zone project their axons to the rostral zone of the accessory olfactory bulb and form synaptic connections with mitral–tufted cells belonging to the rostral zone. Signals originated from basal zone sensory neurons are sent to mitral–tufted cells in the caudal zone of the accessory olfactory bulb. We discuss functional implications of the zonal organization in both main and accessory olfactory systems.

scholarly journals Temporal Structure of Receptor Neuron Input to the Olfactory Bulb Imaged in Behaving Rats

2009 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 1073-1088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan M. Carey ◽  
Justus V. Verhagen ◽  
Daniel W. Wesson ◽  
Nicolás Pírez ◽  
Matt Wachowiak
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Nasal Cavity ◽  
Rise Time ◽  
Olfactory System ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Progressive Increase ◽  
Sorption Kinetics ◽  
Temporal Organization

The dynamics of sensory input to the nervous system play a critical role in shaping higher-level processing. In the olfactory system, the dynamics of input from olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) are poorly characterized and depend on multiple factors, including respiration-driven airflow through the nasal cavity, odorant sorption kinetics, receptor–ligand interactions between odorant and receptor, and the electrophysiological properties of ORNs. Here, we provide a detailed characterization of the temporal organization of ORN input to the mammalian olfactory bulb (OB) during natural respiration, using calcium imaging to monitor ORN input to the OB in awake, head-fixed rats expressing odor-guided behaviors. We report several key findings. First, across a population of homotypic ORNs, each inhalation of odorant evokes a burst of action potentials having a rise time of about 80 ms and a duration of about 100 ms. This rise time indicates a relatively slow, progressive increase in ORN activation as odorant flows through the nasal cavity. Second, the dynamics of ORN input differ among glomeruli and for different odorants and concentrations, but remain reliable across successive inhalations. Third, inhalation alone (in the absence of odorant) evokes ORN input to a significant fraction of OB glomeruli. Finally, high-frequency sniffing of odorant strongly reduces the temporal coupling between ORN inputs and the respiratory cycle. These results suggest that the dynamics of sensory input to the olfactory system may play a role in coding odor information and that, in the awake animal, strategies for processing odor information may change as a function of sampling behavior.

scholarly journals Changes in weak pair-wise correlations during running reshapes network state in the main olfactory bulb

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Udaysankar Chockanathan ◽  
Emily J. W. Crosier ◽  
Spencer Waddle ◽  
Edward Lyman ◽  
Richard C. Gerkin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Spontaneous Activity ◽  
Olfactory System ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
High Density ◽  
Main Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Population Activity ◽  
Maximum Entropy Models ◽  
Electrophysiological Recordings

AbstractNeural codes for sensory representations are thought to reside in a broader space defined by the patterns of spontaneous activity that occur when stimuli are not being presented. To understand the structure of this spontaneous activity in the olfactory system, we performed high-density recordings of population activity in the main olfactory bulb of awake mice. We found that spontaneous activity patterns of ensembles of mitral and tufted (M/T) cells in the main olfactory bulb changed dramatically during locomotion, including decreases in pairwise correlations between neurons and increases in the entropy of the population. Maximum entropy models of the ensemble activity revealed that pair-wise interactions were better at predicting patterns of activity when the animal was stationary than while running, suggesting that higher order (3rd, 4th order) interactions between neurons shape activity during locomotion. Taken together, we found that locomotion influenced the structure of spontaneous population activity at the earliest stages of olfactory processing, 1 synapse away from the sensory receptors in the nasal epithelium.New and NoteworthyThe organization and structure of spontaneous population activity in the olfactory system places constraints of how odor information is represented. Using high-density electrophysiological recordings of mitral and tufted cells, we found that running increases the dimensionality of spontaneous activity, implicating higher-order interactions among neurons during locomotion. Behavior thus flexibly alters neuronal activity at the earliest stages of sensory processing.

scholarly journals Principles of odor coding in vertebrates and artificial chemosensory systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Manzini ◽  
Detlev Schild ◽  
Corrado Di Natale
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Data Exchange ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Sensory System ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Odor Coding ◽  
Electronic Noses ◽  
Olfactory Systems ◽  
Receptor Neurons ◽  
Chemosensory Systems

The biological olfactory system is the sensory system responsible for the detection of the chemical composition of the environment. Several attempts to mimic biological olfactory systems have led to various artificial olfactory systems using different technical approaches. Here we provide a parallel description of biological olfactory systems and their technical counterparts. We start with a presentation of the input to the systems, the stimuli, and treat the interface between the external world and the environment where receptor neurons or artificial chemosensors reside. We then delineate the functions of receptor neurons and chemosensors as well as their overall I-O relationships. Up to this point, our account of the systems goes along similar lines. The next processing steps differ considerably: while in biology the processing step following the receptor neurons is the "integration" and "processing" of receptor neuron outputs in the olfactory bulb, this step has various realizations in electronic noses. For a long period of time, the signal processing stages beyond the olfactory bulb, i.e., the higher olfactory centers were little studied. Only recently there has been a marked growth of studies tackling the information processing in these centers. In electronic noses, a third stage of processing has virtually never been considered. In this review, we provide an up-to-date overview of the current knowledge of both fields and, for the first time, attempt to tie them together. We hope it will be a breeding ground for better information, communication, and data exchange between very related but so far little connected fields.

Salamander olfactory bulb neuronal activity observed by video rate, voltage-sensitive dye imaging. III. Spatial and temporal properties of responses evoked by odorant stimulation

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (5) ◽  
pp. 2053-2071 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. Cinelli ◽  
K. A. Hamilton ◽  
J. S. Kauer
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Olfactory Epithelium ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Odorant Receptor ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Voltage Sensitive Dye ◽  
Odor Coding ◽  
Temporal Properties ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Distributions

1. Activity patterns across and within the laminae of the olfactory bulb were analyzed by imaging voltage-sensitive dye responses during odorant stimulation of all or part of the ventral olfactory mucosa. 2. The time course of the signals was generally characterized by a brief, small hyperpolarization, followed by a period of depolarization, and then a longer-lasting hyperpolarization similar to that seen with electric stimulation but with longer durations. 3. The activity was distributed nonhomogeneously across the bulbar laminae in the form of spatially segregated clusters having bandlike appearances. Clusters were observed with three monomolecular odorants, amyl acetate, ethyl-n-butyrate, and limonene, and with the complex odor of meal worms. Although response patterns to different odorants overlapped, they also showed differences in overall distribution. 4. Delivery of high odorant concentrations increased the size of the activated areas and accentuated the degree of response pattern overlap among different odorants. The general properties of the response patterns generated by each odorant were, however, similar at different odorant concentrations and in each of the animals tested. 5. The spatial and temporal distributions of the bulbar responses were somewhat similar regardless of whether the odorants were applied to local epithelial regions via punctate stimulation or to the entire mucosa. Certain regions did, however, have lower thresholds than others for eliciting bulbar activity in response to particular odorants. 6. Odorants applied to regions of the epithelium outside the areas of maximum sensitivity elicited odorant-related activity patterns with depolarizing and hyperpolarizing components similar to those seen with overall stimulation, but only if higher concentrations were used. Activation of distributed odorant sensitivities presumably gave rise to these patterns. 7. These data suggest that subsets of odorant receptor types are found in different areas of the olfactory epithelium, and demonstrate that there is widespread distribution across the epithelium of receptors sensitive to particular odorants. On the basis of the structure of these epithelial fields and the bulb response patterns that they relate to, these findings also provide evidence for complex spatial relationships between the olfactory epithelium and bulb. 8. The findings from this study suggest that representation of odor information in the salamander olfactory bulb does not occur by activation of a few selective bulbar regions, each related to a different odorant species. Instead, large regions of bulbar circuitry are involved in which molecular epitopes may be the unit of representation. Incorporation of new data presented here into a hypothesis of odor coding is discussed.

scholarly journals A transformation from temporal to ensemble coding in a model of piriform cortex

eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merav Stern ◽  
Kevin A Bolding ◽  
LF Abbott ◽  
Kevin M Franks
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Olfactory System ◽  
Feedback Inhibition ◽  
Piriform Cortex ◽  
Odor Coding ◽  
System A ◽  
Coding Strategies ◽  
Concentration Changes ◽  
Recurrent Collateral ◽  
The Impact

Different coding strategies are used to represent odor information at various stages of the mammalian olfactory system. A temporal latency code represents odor identity in olfactory bulb (OB), but this temporal information is discarded in piriform cortex (PCx) where odor identity is instead encoded through ensemble membership. We developed a spiking PCx network model to understand how this transformation is implemented. In the model, the impact of OB inputs activated earliest after inhalation is amplified within PCx by diffuse recurrent collateral excitation, which then recruits strong, sustained feedback inhibition that suppresses the impact of later-responding glomeruli. We model increasing odor concentrations by decreasing glomerulus onset latencies while preserving their activation sequences. This produces a multiplexed cortical odor code in which activated ensembles are robust to concentration changes while concentration information is encoded through population synchrony. Our model demonstrates how PCx circuitry can implement multiplexed ensemble-identity/temporal-concentration odor coding.

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