The perceptual logic of smell

Restructuring of olfactory representations in the fly brain around odor relationships in natural sources

A core challenge of olfactory neuroscience is to understand how neural representations of odor are generated and progressively transformed across different layers of the olfactory circuit into formats that support perception and behavior. The encoding of odor by odorant receptors in the input layer of the olfactory system reflects, at least in part, the chemical relationships between odor compounds. Neural representations of odor in higher order associative olfactory areas, generated by random feedforward networks, are expected to largely preserve these input odor relationships1-3. We evaluated these ideas by examining how odors are represented at different stages of processing in the olfactory circuit of the vinegar fly D. melanogaster. We found that representations of odor in the mushroom body (MB), a third-order associative olfactory area in the fly brain, are indeed structured and invariant across flies. However, the structure of MB representational space diverged significantly from what is expected in a randomly connected network. In addition, odor relationships encoded in the MB were better correlated with a metric of the similarity of their distribution across natural sources compared to their similarity with respect to chemical features, and the converse was true for odor relationships encoded in primary olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). Comparison of odor coding at primary, secondary, and tertiary layers of the circuit revealed that odors were significantly regrouped with respect to their representational similarity across successive stages of olfactory processing, with the largest changes occurring in the MB. The non-linear reorganization of odor relationships in the MB indicates that unappreciated structure exists in the fly olfactory circuit, and this structure may facilitate the generalization of odors with respect to their co-occurence in natural sources.

A 3D transcriptomics atlas of the mouse nose sheds light on the anatomical logic of smell

The sense of smell helps us navigate the environment, but its molecular architecture and underlying logic remain understudied. The spatial location of odorant receptor genes (Olfrs) in the nose is thought to be independent of the structural diversity of the odorants they detect. Using spatial transcriptomics, we create a genome-wide 3D atlas of the mouse olfactory mucosa (OM). Topographic maps of genes differentially expressed in space reveal that both Olfrs and non-Olfrs are distributed in a continuous and overlapping fashion over at least five broad zones in the OM. The spatial locations of Olfrs correlate with the mucus solubility of the odorants they recognize, providing direct evidence for the chromatographic theory of olfaction. This resource resolves the molecular architecture of the mouse OM and will inform future studies on mechanisms underlying Olfr gene choice, axonal pathfinding, patterning of the nervous system, and basic logic for the peripheral representation of smell.

The human olfactory bulb processes odor valence representation and cues motor avoidance behavior

Determining the valence of an odor to guide rapid approach-avoidance behavior is thought to be one of the core tasks of the olfactory system, and yet little is known of the initial neural mechanisms supporting this process or of its subsequent behavioral manifestation in humans. In two experiments, we measured the functional processing of odor valence perception in the human olfactory bulb (OB)-the first processing stage of the olfactory system-using a noninvasive method as well as assessed the subsequent motor avoidance response. We demonstrate that odor valence perception is associated with both gamma and beta activity in the human OB. Moreover, we show that negative, but not positive, odors initiate an early beta response in the OB, a response that is linked to a preparatory neural motor response in the motor cortex. Finally, in a separate experiment, we show that negative odors trigger a full-body motor avoidance response, manifested as a rapid leaning away from the odor, within the time period predicted by the OB results. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the human OB processes odor valence in a sequential manner in both the gamma and beta frequency bands and suggest that rapid processing of unpleasant odors in the OB might underlie rapid approach-avoidance decisions.

Dimensional reduction in complex living systems: Where, why, and how

The unprecedented prowess of measurement techniques provides a detailed, multi-scale look into the depths of living systems. Understanding these avalanches of high-dimensional data-by distilling underlying principles and mechanisms-necessitates dimensional reduction. We propose that living systems achieve exquisite dimensional reduction, originating from their capacity to learn, through evolution and phenotypic plasticity, the relevant aspects of a non-random, smooth physical reality. We explain how geometric insights by mathematicians allow one to identify these genuine hallmarks of life and distinguish them from universal properties of generic data sets. We illustrate these principles in a concrete example of protein evolution, suggesting a simple general recipe that can be applied to understand other biological systems.

Perception of Social Odor and Gender-Related Differences Investigated Through the Use of Transfer Entropy and Embodied Medium

The perception of putative pheromones or social odors (PPSO) in humans is a widely debated topic because the published results seem ambiguous. Our research aimed to evaluate how cross-modal processing of PPSO and gender voice can affect the behavioral and psychophysiological states of the subject during a listening task with a bodily contact medium, and how these effects could be gender related. Before the experimental session, three embodied media, were exposed to volatilized estratetraenol (Estr), 5α-androst-16-en-3 α-ol (Andr), and Vaseline oil. The experimental session consisted in listening to a story that were transmitted, with a male or female voice, by the communicative medium via a Bluetooth system during a listening task, recorded through 64-active channel electroencephalography (EEG). The sense of co-presence and social presence, elicited by the medium, showed how the established relationship with the medium was gender dependent and modulated by the PPSO. In particular, Andr induced greater responses related to co-presence. The gender of the participants was related to the co-presence desire, where women imagined higher medium co-presence than men. EEG findings seemed to be more responsive to the PPSO–gender voice interaction, than behavioral results. The mismatch between female PPSO and male voice elicited the greatest cortical flow of information. In the case of the Andr–male voice condition, the trained model appeared to assign more relevance to the flow of information to the right frontotemporal regions (involved in odor recognition memory and social behavior). The Estr–male voice condition showed activation of the bilateral frontoparietal network, which is linked to cognitive control, cognitive flexibility, and auditory consciousness. The model appears to distinguish the dissonance condition linked to Andr matched with a female voice: it highlights a flow of information to the right occipital lobe and to the frontal pole. The PPSO could influence the co-presence judgements and EEG response. The results seem suggest that could be an implicit pattern linked to PPSO-related gender differences and gender voice.

Deconstructing the mouse olfactory percept through an ethological atlas

Odor perception in non-humans is poorly understood. Here, we generated the most comprehensive mouse olfactory ethological atlas to date, consisting of behavioral responses to a diverse panel of 73 odorants, including 12 at multiple concentrations. These data revealed that mouse behavior is incredibly diverse and changes in response to odorant identity and concentration. Using only behavioral responses observed in other mice, we could predict which of two odorants was presented to a held-out mouse 82% of the time. Considering all 73 possible odorants, we could uniquely identify the target odorant from behavior on the first try 20% of the time and 46% within five attempts. Although mouse behavior is difficult to predict from human perception, they share three fundamental properties: first, odor valence parameters explained the highest variance of olfactory perception. Second, physicochemical properties of odorants can be used to predict the olfactory percept. Third, odorant concentration quantitatively and qualitatively impacts olfactory perception. These results increase our understanding of mouse olfactory behavior and how it compares to human odor perception and provide a template for future comparative studies of olfactory percepts among species.

Exploring Social Biomarkers in High-Functioning Adults with Autism and Asperger's Versus Healthy Controls: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Biomarkers for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are lacking but would facilitate drug development for the core deficits of the disorder. We evaluated markers proposed for characterization of differences in social communication and interaction in adults with ASD versus healthy controls (HC) for utility as biomarkers. Data pooled from an observational study and baseline data from a placebo-controlled study were analyzed. Between-group differences were observed in eye-tracking tasks for activity monitoring, biomotion, human activity preference, composite score (p = 0.0001-0.037) and pupillometry (various tasks, p = 0.017-0.05). Impaired olfaction was more common in the ASD sample versus HC (p = 0.018). Our preliminary results suggest the potential use for stratification and response sub-analyses outcome-prediction of specific eye-tracking tasks, pupillometry and olfaction tests in ASD trials.

Categorizing Smells: A Localist Approach

Humans are poorer at identifying smells and communicating about them, compared to other sensory domains. They also cannot easily organize odor sensations in a general conceptual space, where geometric distance could represent how similar or different all odors are. These two generalities are more or less accepted by psychologists, and they are often seen as connected: If there is no conceptual space for odors, then olfactory identification should indeed be poor. We propose here an important revision to this conclusion: We believe that the claim that there is no odor space is true only if by odor space, one means a conceptual space representing all possible odor sensations, in the paradigmatic sense used for instance for color. However, in a less paradigmatic sense, local conceptual spaces representing a given subset of odors do exist. Thus the absence of a global odor space does not warrant the conclusion that there is no olfactory conceptual map at all. Here we show how a localist account provides a new interpretation of experts and cross-cultural categorization studies: Rather than being exceptions to the poor olfactory identification and communication usually seen elsewhere, experts and cross-cultural categorization are here taken to corroborate the existence of local conceptual spaces.

Odor coding in the mammalian olfactory epithelium

Noses are extremely sophisticated chemical detectors allowing animals to use scents to interpret and navigate their environments. Odor detection starts with the activation of odorant receptors (ORs), expressed in mature olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) populating the olfactory mucosa. Different odorants, or different concentrations of the same odorant, activate unique ensembles of ORs. This mechanism of combinatorial receptor coding provided a possible explanation as to why different odorants are perceived as having distinct odors. Aided by new technologies, several recent studies have found that antagonist interactions also play an important role in the formation of the combinatorial receptor code. These findings mark the start of a new era in the study of odorant-receptor interactions and add a new level of complexity to odor coding in mammals.

Acid-Sensing Ion Channels Contribute to Type III Adenylyl Cyclase-Independent Acid Sensing of Mouse Olfactory Sensory Neurons

Acids can disturb the ecosystem of wild animals through altering their olfaction and olfaction-related survival behaviors. It is known that the main olfactory epithelia (MOE) of mammals rely on odorant receptors and type III adenylyl cyclase (AC3) to detect general odorants. However, it is unknown how the olfactory system sense protons or acidic odorants. Here, we show that while the MOE of AC3 knockout (KO) mice failed to respond to an odor mix in electro-olfactogram (EOG) recordings, it retained a small fraction of acid-evoked EOG responses. The acetic acid-induced EOG responses in wild-type (WT) MOE can be dissected into two components: the big component dependent on the AC3-mediated cAMP pathway and the much smaller component not. The small acid-evoked EOG response of the AC3 KOs was blocked by diminazene, an inhibitor of acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs), but not by forskolin/IBMX that desensitize the cAMP pathway. AC3 KO mice lost their sensitivity to detect pungent odorants but maintained sniffing behavior to acetic acid. Immunofluorescence staining demonstrated that ASIC1 proteins were highly expressed in olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), mostly enriched in the knobs, dendrites, and somata, but not in olfactory cilia. Real-time polymerase chain reaction further detected the mRNA expression of ASIC1a, ASIC2b, and ASIC3 in the MOE. Additionally, mice exhibited reduced preference to attractive objects when placed in an environment with acidic volatiles. Together, we conclude that the mouse olfactory system has a non-conventional, likely ASIC-mediated ionotropic mechanism for acid sensing.

Reliable chiral recognition with an optoelectronic nose

Chiral discrimination is a key problem in analytical chemistry. It is generally performed using expensive instruments or highly-specific miniaturized sensors. An electronic nose is a bio-inspired instrument capable after training of discriminating a wide variety of analytes. However, generality is achieved at the cost of specificity which makes chiral recognition a challenging task for this kind of device. Recently, a peptide-based optoelectronic nose which can board up to hundreds of different sensing materials has shown promising results, especially in terms of specificity. In line with these results, we describe here its use for chiral recognition. This challenging task requires care, especially in terms of statistical reliability and experimental confounds. For these reasons, we set up an automatic gas sampling system and recorded data over two long sessions, taking care to exclude possible confounds. Two couples of chiral molecules, namely (R) and (S) Limonene and (R) and (S) Carvone, were tested and several statistical analyses indicate the almost perfect discrimination of their two enantiomers. A method to highlight discriminative sensing materials is also proposed and shows that successful discrimination is likely achieved using just a few peptides.

Molecular Signature of Pruriceptive MrgprA3+ Neurons

Itch, initiated by the activation of sensory neurons, is associated frequently with dermatological diseases. MrgprA3⁺ sensory neurons have been identified as one of the major itch-sensing neuronal populations. Mounting evidence has demonstrated that peripheral pathological conditions induce physiological regulation of sensory neurons, which is critical for the maintenance of chronic itch sensation. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not clear. Here, we performed RNA sequencing of genetically labeled MrgprA3⁺ neurons under both naïve and allergic contact dermatitis conditions. Our results revealed the unique molecular signature of itch-sensing neurons and the distinct transcriptional profile changes that result in response to dermatitis. We found enrichment of nine Mrgpr family members and two histamine receptors in MrgprA3⁺ neurons, suggesting that MrgprA3⁺ neurons are a direct neuronal target for histamine and Mrgpr agonists. In addition, PTPN6 and PCDH12 were identified as highly selective markers of MrgprA3⁺ neurons. We also discovered that MrgprA3⁺ neurons respond to skin dermatitis in a way that is unique from other sensory neurons by regulating a combination of transcriptional factors, ion channels, and key molecules involved in synaptic transmission. These results significantly increase our knowledge of itch transmission and uncover potential targets for combating itch.

A methodological investigation of a flexible surface MRI coil to obtain functional signals from the human olfactory bulb

BACKGROUND

Mammalian olfaction begins with transduction in olfactory receptors, continues with extensive processing in the olfactory bulb, and culminates in cortical representation. Most rodent studies on the functional neuroanatomy of olfaction have concentrated on the olfactory bulb, yet whether this structure is tuned only to basic chemical features of odorants or also to higher-order perceptual features is unclear.

NEW METHOD

Whereas studies of the human brain can typically uncover involvement of higher-order feature extraction, this has not been possible in the case of the olfactory bulb, inaccessible to fMRI. The present study examined whether a novel method of acquisition using a facial coil could overcome this limitation.

RESULTS

A series of experiments provided preliminary evidence of odor-driven responses in the human olfactory bulb, and found that these responses differed between individuals.

COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS AND CONCLUSIONS

The present preliminary technical achievement renders possible to design novel human odor fMRI studies by considering the olfactory system from the olfactory bulb to associative areas.

Associative conditioning remaps odor representations and modifies inhibition in a higher olfactory brain area

Intelligent behavior involves associations between high-dimensional sensory representations and behaviorally relevant qualities such as valence. Learning of associations involves plasticity of excitatory connectivity but it remains poorly understood how information flow is reorganized in networks and how inhibition contributes to this process. We trained adult zebrafish in an appetitive odor discrimination task and analyzed odor representations in a specific compartment of telencephalic area Dp, the homolog of olfactory cortex. Associative conditioning enhanced responses with a preference for the positively conditioned odor (CS⁺). Moreover, conditioning systematically remapped odor representations along an axis in coding space that represented attractiveness (valence). Inter-individual variations in this mapping predicted variations in behavioral odor preference. Photoinhibition of interneurons resulted in specific modifications of odor representations that mirrored effects of conditioning and reduced experience-dependent, inter-individual variations in odor-valence mapping. These results reveal an individualized odor-to-valence map that is shaped by inhibition and reorganized during learning.

Mosaic representations of odors in the input and output layers of the mouse olfactory bulb

The elementary stimulus features encoded by the olfactory system remain poorly understood. We examined the relationship between 1,666 physical-chemical descriptors of odors and the activity of olfactory bulb inputs and outputs in awake mice. Glomerular and mitral and tufted cell responses were sparse and locally heterogeneous, with only a weak dependence of their positions on physical-chemical properties. Odor features represented by ensembles of mitral and tufted cells were overlapping but distinct from those represented in glomeruli, which is consistent with an extensive interplay between feedforward and feedback inputs to the bulb. This reformatting was well described as a rotation in odor space. The physical-chemical descriptors accounted for a small fraction in response variance, and the similarity of odors in the physical-chemical space was a poor predictor of similarity in neuronal representations. Our results suggest that commonly used physical-chemical properties are not systematically represented in bulbar activity and encourage further searches for better descriptors of odor space.

Olfactory Event-Related Potentials and Exhaled Organic Volatile Compounds: The Slow Link Between Olfactory Perception and Breath Metabolic Response. A Pilot Study on Phenylethyl Alcohol and Vaseline Oil

Olfactory processing starts with the breath and elicits neuronal, metabolic and cortical responses. This process can be investigated centrally via the Olfactory Event-Related Potentials (OERPs) and peripherally via exhaled Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Despite this, the relationship between OERPs (i.e., N1 and Late Positive Component LPC) and exhaled VOCs has not been investigated enough. The aim of this research is to study OERPs and VOCs connection to two different stimuli: phenylethyl alcohol (PEA) and Vaseline Oil (VO). Fifteen healthy subjects performed a perceptual olfactory task with PEA as a smell target stimulus and VO as a neutral stimulus. The results suggest that OERPs and VOCs distributions follow the same amplitude trend and that PEA is highly arousing in both psychophysiological measures. PEA shows ampler and faster N1, a component related to the sensorial aspect of the stimulus. The N1 topographic localization is different between PEA and VO: PEA stimulus evokes greater N1 in the left centroparietal site. LPC, a component elicited by the perceptual characteristic of the stimulus, shows faster latency in the Frontal lobe and decreased amplitude in the Central and Parietal lobe elicited by the PEA smell. Moreover, the delayed time between the onset of N1-LPC and the onset of VOCs seems to be about 3 s. This delay could be identified as the internal metabolic time in which the odorous stimulus, once perceived at the cortical level, is metabolized and subsequently exhaled. Furthermore, the VO stimulus does not allocate the attentive, perceptive and metabolic resource as with PEA.

Centrifugal Inputs to the Main Olfactory Bulb Revealed Through Whole Brain Circuit-Mapping

Neuronal activity in sensory regions can be modulated by attention, behavioral state, motor output, learning, and memory. This is often done through direct feedback or centrifugal projections originating from higher processing areas. Though, functionally important, the identity and organization of these feedback connections remain poorly characterized. Using a retrograde monosynaptic g-deleted rabies virus and whole-brain reconstructions, we identified the organization of feedback projecting neurons to the main olfactory bulb of the mouse. In addition to previously described projections from regions such as the Anterior Olfactory Nucleus (AON) and the piriform cortex, we characterized direct projections from pyramidal cells in the ventral CA1 region of hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex to the granule cell layer (GCL) of the main olfactory bulb (MOB). These data suggest that areas involved in stress, anxiety, learning and memory are all tethered to olfactory coding, two synapses away from where chemical compounds are first detected. Consequently, we hypothesize that understanding olfactory perception, even at the earliest stages, may require studying memory and behavior in addition to studying the physiochemical features of odors.

Machine Learning in Human Olfactory Research

The complexity of the human sense of smell is increasingly reflected in complex and high-dimensional data, which opens opportunities for data-driven approaches that complement hypothesis-driven research. Contemporary developments in computational and data science, with its currently most popular implementation as machine learning, facilitate complex data-driven research approaches. The use of machine learning in human olfactory research included major approaches comprising 1) the study of the physiology of pattern-based odor detection and recognition processes, 2) pattern recognition in olfactory phenotypes, 3) the development of complex disease biomarkers including olfactory features, 4) odor prediction from physico-chemical properties of volatile molecules, and 5) knowledge discovery in publicly available big databases. A limited set of unsupervised and supervised machine-learned methods has been used in these projects, however, the increasing use of contemporary methods of computational science is reflected in a growing number of reports employing machine learning for human olfactory research. This review provides key concepts of machine learning and summarizes current applications on human olfactory data.

Altered responses to social chemosignals in autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by impaired social communication, often attributed to misreading of emotional cues. Why individuals with ASD misread emotions remains unclear. Given that terrestrial mammals rely on their sense of smell to read conspecific emotions, we hypothesized that misreading of emotional cues in ASD partially reflects altered social chemosignaling. We found no difference between typically developed (TD) and cognitively able adults with ASD at explicit detection and perception of social chemosignals. Nevertheless, TD and ASD participants dissociated in their responses to subliminal presentation of these same compounds: the undetected 'smell of fear' (skydiver sweat) increased physiological arousal and reduced explicit and implicit measures of trust in TD but acted opposite in ASD participants. Moreover, two different undetected synthetic putative social chemosignals increased or decreased arousal in TD but acted opposite in ASD participants. These results implicate social chemosignaling as a sensory substrate of social impairment in ASD.

Olfactory identification deficit predicts white matter tract impairment in Alzheimer's disease

Olfactory identification deficit (OID) has been associated with both aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the context of an amnestic disorders, OID predicts conversion to AD. Neuroanatomical correlates could increase specificity and sensitivity and elucidate the mechanistic differences between OID in AD and aging. Cross-sectional analysis of white matter microstructural changes was performed using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and tract-based-spatial-statistics in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), AD and normal controls (NC) in 66 subjects (26 AD, 15 aMCI, 25 NC). DTI 3-Tesla MRI scans were analyzed and subject level means for fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), radial and axial diffusivity (λ1D and λ2,3D) were calculated. Linear regression models were applied using DTI markers as predictor and OID as outcome. OID was associated with increased λ1D in aMCI and increased MD, λ1D and λ2,3D in AD. Voxel-wise analyses revealed widespread differences in all markers in AD. There were significant differences in λ1D in aMCI, particularly in the olfactory tract. OID is correlated with microstructural white matter changes as early as in aMCI. This study may help elucidate the biological basis for olfactory impairment in Alzheimer's disease. Neuroanatomical correlates could help distinguish OID associated with AD and that associated with aging.

A Family of non-GPCR Chemosensors Defines an Alternative Logic for Mammalian Olfaction

Odor perception in mammals is mediated by parallel sensory pathways that convey distinct information about the olfactory world. Multiple olfactory subsystems express characteristic seven-transmembrane G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in a one-receptor-per-neuron pattern that facilitates odor discrimination. Sensory neurons of the "necklace" subsystem are nestled within the recesses of the olfactory epithelium and detect diverse odorants; however, they do not express known GPCR odor receptors. Here, we report that members of the four-pass transmembrane MS4A protein family are chemosensors expressed within necklace sensory neurons. These receptors localize to sensory endings and confer responses to ethologically relevant ligands, including pheromones and fatty acids, in vitro and in vivo. Individual necklace neurons co-express many MS4A proteins and are activated by multiple MS4A ligands; this pooling of information suggests that the necklace is organized more like subsystems for taste than for smell. The MS4As therefore define a distinct mechanism and functional logic for mammalian olfaction.

On the dimensionality of odor space

There is great interest in understanding human olfactory experience from a principled and quantitative standpoint. The comparison is often made to color vision, where a solid framework with a three-dimensional perceptual space enabled a rigorous search for the underlying neural pathways, and the technological development of lifelike color display devices. A recent, highly publicized report claims that humans can discriminate at least 1 trillion odors, which exceeds by many orders of magnitude the known capabilities of color discrimination. This claim is wrong. I show that the failure lies in the mathematical method used to infer the size of odor space from a limited experimental sample. Further analysis focuses on establishing how many dimensions the perceptual odor space has. I explore the dimensionality of physical, neural, and perceptual spaces, drawing on results from bacteria to humans, and propose some experimental approaches to better estimate the number of discriminable odors.

DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.07865.001

Scientists are interested in the number of colors, sounds and smells we can distinguish because this information can shed light onto how our brains process these senses both in health and disease. It is relatively straightforward to determine how many colors we can see or sounds we can hear because these stimuli are well defined by physical properties such as wavelength. We know the range of wavelengths that the eye can see or the ear can hear, and we can also understand how two such stimuli (e.g., red and blue) are arranged perceptually (think of a color wheel). It is harder, however, to do the same for smell because most ‘olfactory stimuli’ consist of mixtures of different odor molecules. Moreover, we understand much less about how olfactory stimuli are arranged perceptually.

In 2014 researchers at Rockefeller University reported that humans can distinguish more than one trillion smells from one another. To calculate this number the researchers tested the ability of human subjects to discriminate between mixtures of different odor molecules. Each mixture consisted of 10, 20 or 30 molecules selected from a chemical library of 128 different odor molecules. Since each mixture of 10 molecules could contain any 10 of the 128 molecules, more than 200 trillion combinations were possible; the number of possible combinations for the 20- and 30-molecule mixtures were even higher.

The aim of the experiment was to identify—by sampling from this very large number of combinations—the number of molecules that two mixtures could have in common and still be distinguishable to the typical person. The Rockefeller team used this number and a geometrical analogy to conclude that humans could discriminate at least 1.72 trillion odors, which was much higher than expected from previous reports and anecdotes.

Now Meister reports that the claims made in the Rockefeller study are unsupported because of flaws in the design and analysis of the experiment. In particular, there are flaws in the mathematical methods used to infer the potential number of all smells that humans can discriminate from the numbers of experimental samples tested. Meister also applies the Rockefeller approach to a well-understood sensory system—the vision system—and finds that it predicts that humans should be able to discriminate an infinite number of colors: however, it is widely agreed that humans can only discriminate several million colors.

In a separate paper Gerkin and Castro also report that the 1.72 trillion smells claim is unjustified.

DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.07865.002

Behavioral responses to odors from other species: introducing a complementary model of allelochemics involving vertebrates

It has long been known that the behavior of an animal can be affected by odors from another species. Such interspecific effects of odorous compounds (allelochemics) are usually characterized according to who benefits (emitter, receiver, or both) and the odors categorized accordingly (allomones, kairomones, and synomones, respectively), which has its origin in the definition of pheromones, i.e., intraspecific communication via volatile compounds. When considering vertebrates, however, interspecific odor-based effects exist which do not fit well in this paradigm. Three aspects in particular do not encompass all interspecific semiochemical effects: one relates to the innateness of the behavioral response, another to the origin of the odor, and the third to the intent of the message. In this review we focus on vertebrates, and present examples of behavioral responses of animals to odors from other species with specific reference to these three aspects. Searching for a more useful classification of allelochemical effects we examine the relationship between the valence of odors (attractive through to aversive), and the relative contributions of learned and unconditioned (innate) behavioral responses to odors from other species. We propose that these two factors (odor valence and learning) may offer an alternative way to describe the nature of interspecific olfactory effects involving vertebrates compared to the current focus on who benefits.

An olfactory cocktail party: figure-ground segregation of odorants in rodents

In odorant-rich environments, animals must be able to detect specific odorants of interest against variable backgrounds. However, several studies have suggested that both humans and rodents are very poor at analyzing the components of odorant mixtures, leading to the idea that olfaction is a synthetic sense in which mixtures are perceived holistically. We have developed a behavioral task to directly measure the ability of mice to perceive mixture components and found that mice can be easily trained to detect target odorants embedded in unpredictable and variable mixtures. We imaged the responses of olfactory bulb glomeruli to the individual odors used in the task in mice expressing the Ca⁺⁺ indicator GCaMP3 in olfactory receptor neurons. By relating behavioral performance to the glomerular response patterns, we found that the difficulty of segregating the target from the background was strongly dependent on the extent of overlap between the representations of the target and the background odors by olfactory receptors. Our study indicates that the olfactory system has powerful analytic abilities that are constrained by the limits of combinatorial neural representation of odorants at the level of the olfactory receptors.

The receptive field is dead. Long live the receptive field?

Advances in experimental techniques, including behavioral paradigms using rich stimuli under closed loop conditions and the interfacing of neural systems with external inputs and outputs, reveal complex dynamics in the neural code and require a revisiting of standard concepts of representation. High-throughput recording and imaging methods along with the ability to observe and control neuronal subpopulations allow increasingly detailed access to the neural circuitry that subserves neural representations and the computations they support. How do we harness theory to build biologically grounded models of complex neural function?