Title: | Interaction of cellular and network mechanisms for efficient pheromone coding in moths |
Author(s): | Belmabrouk H; Nowotny T; Rospars JP; Martinez D; |
Address: | "Laboratoire Lorrain de Recherche en Informatique et ses Applications (LORIA) Unite Mixte de Recherche 7503, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 54506 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France" |
ISSN/ISBN: | 1091-6490 (Electronic) 0027-8424 (Print) 0027-8424 (Linking) |
Abstract: | "Sensory systems, both in the living and in machines, have to be optimized with respect to their environmental conditions. The pheromone subsystem of the olfactory system of moths is a particularly well-defined example in which rapid variations of odor content in turbulent plumes require fast, concentration-invariant neural representations. It is not clear how cellular and network mechanisms in the moth antennal lobe contribute to coding efficiency. Using computational modeling, we show that intrinsic potassium currents (I(A) and I(SK)) in projection neurons may combine with extrinsic inhibition from local interneurons to implement a dual latency code for both pheromone identity and intensity. The mean latency reflects stimulus intensity, whereas latency differences carry concentration-invariant information about stimulus identity. In accordance with physiological results, the projection neurons exhibit a multiphasic response of inhibition-excitation-inhibition. Together with synaptic inhibition, intrinsic currents I(A) and I(SK) account for the first and second inhibitory phases and contribute to a rapid encoding of pheromone information. The first inhibition plays the role of a reset to limit variability in the time to first spike. The second inhibition prevents responses of excessive duration to allow tracking of intermittent stimuli" |
Keywords: | "Algorithms Animals Female Interneurons/cytology/*physiology Male Manduca/cytology/*physiology Membrane Potentials/physiology Models, Neurological Nerve Net/cytology/*physiology Odorants Olfactory Pathways/cytology/physiology Olfactory Receptor Neurons/phy;" |
Notes: | "MedlineBelmabrouk, Hana Nowotny, Thomas Rospars, Jean-Pierre Martinez, Dominique eng BB/F005113/1/BB_/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2011/11/24 Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Dec 6; 108(49):19790-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1112367108. Epub 2011 Nov 22" |