| Title: | Odour-plume dynamics influence the brain's olfactory code |
| Author(s): | Vickers NJ; Christensen TA; Baker TC; Hildebrand JG; |
| Address: | "Arizona Research Laboratories Division of Neurobiology, The University of Arizona, PO Box 210077, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA. vickers@biology.utah.edu" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0028-0836 (Print) 0028-0836 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "The neural computations used to represent olfactory information in the brain have long been investigated. Recent studies in the insect antennal lobe suggest that precise temporal and/or spatial patterns of activity underlie the recognition and discrimination of different odours, and that these patterns may be strengthened by associative learning. It remains unknown, however, whether these activity patterns persist when odour intensity varies rapidly and unpredictably, as often occurs in nature. Here we show that with naturally intermittent odour stimulation, spike patterns recorded from moth antennal-lobe output neurons varied predictably with the fine-scale temporal dynamics and intensity of the odour. These data support the hypothesis that olfactory circuits compensate for contextual variations in the stimulus pattern with high temporal precision. The timing of output neuron activity is constantly modulated to reflect ongoing changes in stimulus intensity and dynamics that occur on a millisecond timescale" |
| Keywords: | "Action Potentials Animals Brain/physiology Female Flight, Animal Male Models, Neurological Moths Neurons/drug effects/physiology Odorants Sense Organs/physiology Sex Attractants/pharmacology Smell/*physiology;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineVickers, N J Christensen, T A Baker, T C Hildebrand, J G eng Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S. England 2001/03/22 Nature. 2001 Mar 22; 410(6827):466-70. doi: 10.1038/35068559" |
