Little is known about how the odor specificities of olfactory neurons are generated, a process essential to olfactory coding. We have found that neuronal identity relies on the abnormal chemosensory jump 6 (acj6) gene, originally identified by a defect in olfactory behavior. Physiological analysis of individual olfactory neurons shows that in acj6 mutants, a subset of neurons acquires a differe...

We investigated strategies involved in odour intensity coding by the primary olfactory centre of insects, the antennal lobe (AL), the structural and functional analogue of the olfactory bulb. Using calcium imaging in the honeybee, we simultaneously measured the projection neuron output responses and a compound signal dominated by receptor neuron input in identified olfactory glomeruli to odours...

Odor identity is coded in spatiotemporal patterns of neural activity in the olfactory bulb. Here we asked whether meaningful olfactory information could also be read from the global olfactory neural population response. We applied standard statistical methods of dimensionality-reduction to neural activity from 12 previously published studies using seven different species. Four studies reported ...

In the mushroom bodies (MBs) of Drosophila, an analogue of the mammalian olfactory cortex, olfactory stimuli are sparsely encoded by Kenyon cells (KCs) that exhibit a high level of odor selectivity. Sparse coding of olfactory stimuli has significant advantages for maximizing the discrimination power and storage capacity of MBs. The inhibitory gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system is important f...

The aim of the present study was to determine what impact phylogeny and life history might have on the coding of odours in the brain. Using three species of hawk moths (Sphingidae) and two species of owlet moths (Noctuidae), we visualized neural activity patterns in the antennal lobe, the first olfactory neuropil in insects, evoked by a set of ecologically relevant plant volatiles. Our results ...

Although modern baleen whales (Mysticeti) retain a functional olfactory system that includes olfactory bulbs, cranial nerve I and olfactory receptor genes, their olfactory capabilities have been reduced to a great degree. This reduction likely occurred as a selective response to their fully aquatic lifestyle. The glomeruli that occur in the olfactory bulb can be divided into two non-overlapping...