In insects olfaction is a primary sensory modality. As a result changes in the animal’s ecology are often paralleled by modifications in the olfactory system. Using a comparative approach between the generalist Drosophila melanogaster and its sibling specialist D. sechellia, I looked at the coding properties of the olfactory system. Using electrophysiology, neuroanatomy, and behavioral assays w...

Introduction Olfactory coding in the insect brain: molecular receptive ranges, spatial and temporal coding C. Giovanni Galizia* & Paul Szyszka Departmellt of Neurobiology, Urliversity of KOlIStarlz, 78457 KOllstallz, Germany

Olfactory information is first encoded in a combinatorial fashion by olfactory bulb glomeruli, which individually represent distinct chemical features of odors. This information is then transmitted to piriform (olfactory) cortex, via axons of olfactory bulb mitral and tufted (M/T) cells, where it is presumed to form the odor percept. However, mechanisms governing the integration of sensory info...

Mice with gene-targeted deletion of the Kv1.3 channel were generated to study its role in olfactory function. Potassium currents in olfactory bulb mitral cells from Kv1.3 null mice have slow inactivation kinetics, a modified voltage dependence, and a dampened C-type inactivation and fail to be modulated by activators of receptor tyrosine signaling cascades. Kv1.3 deletion increases expression o...

Brain responses can significantly outlast sensory stimuli leading to potential ambiguity when responses overlap. Recent studies of locust olfaction found that the responses of individual second order projection neurons depend markedly on the previous few seconds' stimulus history; the population response, however, still conveys information about both temporal structure and odour identity.

Sensory perception is one of the most fundamental brain functions allowing individuals to properly interact and adapt a constantly changing environment. This process requires integration bottom-up top-down neuronal activity that centrally mediated by basal forebrain, region has been linked series cognitive processes such as attention alertness.
 Here, we review latest research using optoge...

A concept of olfactory coding is proposed. It describes the stimulus responses of all receptor cells by the use of vector spaces. The morphological convergence pattern between receptor cells and glomeruli is given in the same vector space as the receptor cell activities. The overall input of a glomerulus follows as the scalar product of the receptor cell activity vector and the vector of the gl...