Map formation in the olfactory bulb by axon guidance of olfactory neurons

Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience

卷:5

Benjamin eAuffarth²  Bernhard eKaplan²  Anders eLansner³ 

[1] Royal Institute of Technology (KTH);

[2] Stockholm Brain Institute;

[3] Stockholm University;

关键词: Olfactory Bulb;    Perception;    plasticity;    Olfaction;    Axonal guidance;    Olfactory coding;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnsys.2011.00084

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The organization of representations in the brain has been observed to locally reflect subspaces of inputsthat are relevant to behavioral or perceptual feature combinations, such as in areas receptiveto lower and higher-order features in the visual system. The early olfactory system developedhighly plastic mechanisms and convergent evidence indicates that projections from primaryneurons converge onto the glomerular level of the olfactory bulb (OB) to form a code composed ofcontinuous spatial zones that are differentially active for particular physico–-chemical featurecombinations, some of which are known to trigger behavioral responses. In a model study of theearly human olfactory system, we derive a glomerular organization based on a set of real-world,biologically-relevant stimuli, a distribution of receptors that respond each to a set ofodorants of similar ranges of molecular properties, and a mechanism of axon guidance basedon activity. Apart from demonstrating activity-dependent glomeruli formation and reproducing therelationship of glomerular recruitment with concentration, it is shown that glomerular responsesreflect similarities of human odor category perceptions and that further, a spatial code providesa better correlation than a distributed population code. These results are consistent with evidenceof functional compartmentalization in the OB and could suggest a function for the bulb inencoding of perceptual dimensions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown