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Fulton KA, Zimmerman D, Samuel A, Vogt K, Datta SR. Common principles for odour coding across vertebrates and invertebrates. Nat Rev Neurosci 2024; 25:453-472. [PMID: 38806946 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-024-00822-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/30/2024] [Indexed: 05/30/2024]
Abstract
The olfactory system is an ideal and tractable system for exploring how the brain transforms sensory inputs into behaviour. The basic tasks of any olfactory system include odour detection, discrimination and categorization. The challenge for the olfactory system is to transform the high-dimensional space of olfactory stimuli into the much smaller space of perceived objects and valence that endows odours with meaning. Our current understanding of how neural circuits address this challenge has come primarily from observations of the mechanisms of the brain for processing other sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing, in which optimized deep hierarchical circuits are used to extract sensory features that vary along continuous physical dimensions. The olfactory system, by contrast, contends with an ill-defined, high-dimensional stimulus space and discrete stimuli using a circuit architecture that is shallow and parallelized. Here, we present recent observations in vertebrate and invertebrate systems that relate the statistical structure and state-dependent modulation of olfactory codes to mechanisms of perception and odour-guided behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kara A Fulton
- Department of Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - David Zimmerman
- Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Aravi Samuel
- Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Katrin Vogt
- Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
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Lazebnik T, Golov Y, Gurka R, Harari A, Liberzon A. Exploration-exploitation model of moth-inspired olfactory navigation. J R Soc Interface 2024; 21:20230746. [PMID: 39013419 PMCID: PMC11251768 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2023.0746] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2023] [Accepted: 04/25/2024] [Indexed: 07/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Navigation of male moths towards females during the mating search offers a unique perspective on the exploration-exploitation (EE) model in decision-making. This study uses the EE model to explain male moth pheromone-driven flight paths. Wind tunnel measurements and three-dimensional tracking using infrared cameras have been leveraged to gain insights into male moth behaviour. During the experiments in the wind tunnel, disturbance to the airflow has been added and the effect of increased fluctuations on moth flights has been analysed, in the context of the proposed EE model. The exploration and exploitation phases are separated using a genetic algorithm to the experimentally obtained dataset of moth three-dimensional trajectories. First, the exploration-to-exploitation rate (EER) increases with distance from the source of the female pheromone is demonstrated, which can be explained in the context of the EE model. Furthermore, our findings reveal a compelling relationship between EER and increased flow fluctuations near the pheromone source. Using an olfactory navigation simulation and our moth-inspired navigation model, the phenomenon where male moths exhibit an enhanced EER as turbulence levels increase is explained. This research extends our understanding of optimal navigation strategies based on general biological EE models and supports the development of bioinspired navigation algorithms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teddy Lazebnik
- Department of Mathematics, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
- Department of Cancer Biology, Cancer Institute, University College London, London, UK
| | - Yiftach Golov
- Department of Entomology, The Volcani Center, Israel
| | - Roi Gurka
- Department of Physics and Engineering Science, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC, USA
| | - Ally Harari
- Department of Entomology, The Volcani Center, Israel
| | - Alex Liberzon
- Turbulence Structure Laboratory, School of Mechanical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
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Choi K, Rosenbluth W, Graf IR, Kadakia N, Emonet T. Bifurcation enhances temporal information encoding in the olfactory periphery. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.05.27.596086. [PMID: 38853849 PMCID: PMC11160621 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.27.596086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2024]
Abstract
Living systems continually respond to signals from the surrounding environment. Survival requires that their responses adapt quickly and robustly to the changes in the environment. One particularly challenging example is olfactory navigation in turbulent plumes, where animals experience highly intermittent odor signals while odor concentration varies over many length- and timescales. Here, we show theoretically that Drosophila olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) can exploit proximity to a bifurcation point of their firing dynamics to reliably extract information about the timing and intensity of fluctuations in the odor signal, which have been shown to be critical for odor-guided navigation. Close to the bifurcation, the system is intrinsically invariant to signal variance, and information about the timing, duration, and intensity of odor fluctuations is transferred efficiently. Importantly, we find that proximity to the bifurcation is maintained by mean adaptation alone and therefore does not require any additional feedback mechanism or fine-tuning. Using a biophysical model with calcium-based feedback, we demonstrate that this mechanism can explain the measured adaptation characteristics of Drosophila ORNs.
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Choi K, Rosenbluth W, Graf IR, Kadakia N, Emonet T. Bifurcation enhances temporal information encoding in the olfactory periphery. ARXIV 2024:arXiv:2405.20135v2. [PMID: 38855541 PMCID: PMC11160886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2024]
Abstract
Living systems continually respond to signals from the surrounding environment. Survival requires that their responses adapt quickly and robustly to the changes in the environment. One particularly challenging example is olfactory navigation in turbulent plumes, where animals experience highly intermittent odor signals while odor concentration varies over many length- and timescales. Here, we show theoretically that Drosophila olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) can exploit proximity to a bifurcation point of their firing dynamics to reliably extract information about the timing and intensity of fluctuations in the odor signal, which have been shown to be critical for odor-guided navigation. Close to the bifurcation, the system is intrinsically invariant to signal variance, and information about the timing, duration, and intensity of odor fluctuations is transferred efficiently. Importantly, we find that proximity to the bifurcation is maintained by mean adaptation alone and therefore does not require any additional feedback mechanism or fine-tuning. Using a biophysical model with calcium-based feedback, we demonstrate that this mechanism can explain the measured adaptation characteristics of Drosophila ORNs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kiri Choi
- Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
- Quantitative Biology Institute, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
- Swartz Foundation for Theoretical Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
| | - Will Rosenbluth
- Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
| | - Isabella R. Graf
- Quantitative Biology Institute, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
- Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
| | - Nirag Kadakia
- Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
- Quantitative Biology Institute, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
- Swartz Foundation for Theoretical Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
| | - Thierry Emonet
- Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
- Quantitative Biology Institute, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
- Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
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Mizunami M, Yamagata N. Editorial overview: Aroma nudges in bugs: Sensory perception and memory in insects. CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE 2024; 62:101165. [PMID: 38244691 DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2024.101165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Makoto Mizunami
- Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
| | - Nobuhiro Yamagata
- Faculty and Graduate School of Engineering Science, Akita University, Akita, Japan
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Nishino H. Spatial odor map formation, development, and possible function in a nocturnal insect. CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE 2023; 59:101087. [PMID: 37468043 DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2023.101087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 07/11/2023] [Accepted: 07/13/2023] [Indexed: 07/21/2023]
Abstract
An odor plume is composed of fine filamentous structures interspersed by clean air. Various animals use bilateral comparison with paired olfactory organs for detecting spatial and temporal features of the plume. American cockroaches are capable of locating a sex pheromone source with one long antenna spanning 5 cm, so-called unilateral odor sampling. This capability stems from an antennotopic map in which olfactory sensory neurons located proximo-distally in the antenna send axon terminals proximo-distally in a given glomerulus, relative to axonal entry points. Multiple output neurons (projection neurons) utilize this spatial map in the pheromone-receptive glomerulus. Here, I summarize neuronal underpinnings of receptive field formation, development, and how this intraglomerular spatial map can be utilized for odor localization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hiroshi Nishino
- Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0812, Japan.
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