T. Kondoh, R. Shibata, K. Torii Institute of Life Sciences, Ajinomoto Co., Inc., Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan Introduction The previous study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suggests that the medial frontal cortex (mFC), which is considered as “visceral motor cortex” (1) and is little considered as one of the olfactory centers (2), responded well to olfactory stimulation with sim...

Animals need to discriminate differences in spatiotemporally distributed sensory signals in terms of quality as well as quantity for generating adaptive behavior. Olfactory signals characterized by odor identity and concentration are intermittently distributed in the environment. From these intervals of stimulation, animals process odorant concentration to localize partners or food sources. Alt...

This study addressed the question of the possible functional relevance of two different oscillatory activities, beta and gamma (15-40 and 60-90 Hz, respectively) for perception and memory processes in olfactory areas of mammals. Local field potentials were recorded near relay olfactory bulb neurons while rats performed an olfactory discrimination task. Signals reflected the mass activity from t...

In the olfactory system, cholinergic modulation has been associated with contrast modulation and changes in receptive fields in the olfactory bulb, as well the learning of odor associations in olfactory cortex. Computational modeling and behavioral studies suggest that cholinergic modulation could improve sensory processing and learning while preventing pro-active interference when task demands...

Olfactory sensory neurons in the main olfactory epithelium (MOE) are responsible for detecting odorants and EOG recording is a reliable approach to analyze the peripheral olfactory function. However, recently we revealed that rodent MOE can also detect the air pressure caused by airflow. The sensation of airflow pressure and odorants may function in synergy to facilitate odorant perception duri...

Olfactory receptor neurons can regenerate from basal stem cells. Receptor neuron lesion causes degenerative changes in the olfactory bulb followed by regeneration as new olfactory receptor axons innervate the olfactory bulb. To our knowledge, parametric analyses of morphometric changes in the olfactory bulb during degeneration and regeneration do not exist except in abstract form. To better cha...