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Rigolli N, Magnoli N, Rosasco L, Seminara A. Learning to predict target location with turbulent odor plumes. eLife 2022; 11:72196. [PMID: 35959726 PMCID: PMC9374438 DOI: 10.7554/elife.72196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2021] [Accepted: 07/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Animal behavior and neural recordings show that the brain is able to measure both the intensity and the timing of odor encounters. However, whether intensity or timing of odor detections is more informative for olfactory-driven behavior is not understood. To tackle this question, we consider the problem of locating a target using the odor it releases. We ask whether the position of a target is best predicted by measures of timing vs intensity of its odor, sampled for a short period of time. To answer this question, we feed data from accurate numerical simulations of odor transport to machine learning algorithms that learn how to connect odor to target location. We find that both intensity and timing can separately predict target location even from a distance of several meters; however, their efficacy varies with the dilution of the odor in space. Thus, organisms that use olfaction from different ranges may have to switch among different modalities. This has implications on how the brain should represent odors as the target is approached. We demonstrate simple strategies to improve accuracy and robustness of the prediction by modifying odor sampling and appropriately combining distinct measures together. To test the predictions, animal behavior and odor representation should be monitored as the animal moves relative to the target, or in virtual conditions that mimic concentrated vs dilute environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Rigolli
- Department of Physics, University of Genova, Genova, Italy.,Institut de Physique de Nice, Université Côte d'Azur, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Nice, France.,National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Genova, Italy.,MalGa, Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
| | - Nicodemo Magnoli
- Department of Physics, University of Genova, Genova, Italy.,National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Genova, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Rosasco
- MaLGa, Department of computer science, bioengineering, robotics and systems engineering, University of Genova, Genova, Italy
| | - Agnese Seminara
- Institut de Physique de Nice, Université Côte d'Azur, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Nice, France.,MalGa, Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
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2
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Jayaram V, Kadakia N, Emonet T. Sensing complementary temporal features of odor signals enhances navigation of diverse turbulent plumes. eLife 2022; 11:72415. [PMID: 35072625 PMCID: PMC8871351 DOI: 10.7554/elife.72415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2021] [Accepted: 01/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
We and others have shown that during odor plume navigation, walking Drosophila melanogaster bias their motion upwind in response to both the frequency of their encounters with the odor (Demir et al., 2020), and the intermittency of the odor signal, which we define to be the fraction of time the signal is above a detection threshold (Alvarez-Salvado et al., 2018). Here we combine and simplify previous mathematical models that recapitulated these data to investigate the benefits of sensing both of these temporal features, and how these benefits depend on the spatiotemporal statistics of the odor plume. Through agent-based simulations, we find that navigators that only use frequency or intermittency perform well in some environments - achieving maximal performance when gains are near those inferred from experiment - but fail in others. Robust performance across diverse environments requires both temporal modalities. However, we also find a steep tradeoff when using both sensors simultaneously, suggesting a strong benefit to modulating how much each sensor is weighted, rather than using both in a fixed combination across plumes. Finally, we show that the circuitry of the Drosophila olfactory periphery naturally enables simultaneous intermittency and frequency sensing, enhancing robust navigation through a diversity of odor environments. Together, our results suggest that the first stage of olfactory processing selects and encodes temporal features of odor signals critical to real-world navigation tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nirag Kadakia
- Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University
| | - Thierry Emonet
- Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University
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3
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Kuruppath P, Belluscio L. The influence of stimulus duration on olfactory perception. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0252931. [PMID: 34111206 PMCID: PMC8191971 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252931] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2020] [Accepted: 05/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
The duration of a stimulus plays an important role in the coding of sensory information. The role of stimulus duration is extensively studied in the tactile, visual, and auditory system. In the olfactory system, temporal properties of the stimulus are key for obtaining information when an odor is released in the environment. However, how the stimulus duration influences the odor perception is not well understood. To test this, we activated the olfactory bulbs with blue light in mice expressing channelrhodopsin in the olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and assessed the relevance of stimulus duration on olfactory perception using foot shock associated active avoidance behavioral task on a "two-arms maze". Our behavior data demonstrate that the stimulus duration plays an important role in olfactory perception and the associated behavioral responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Praveen Kuruppath
- Developmental Neural Plasticity Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Leonardo Belluscio
- Developmental Neural Plasticity Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
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4
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Fast odour dynamics are encoded in the olfactory system and guide behaviour. Nature 2021; 593:558-563. [PMID: 33953395 PMCID: PMC7611658 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03514-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2020] [Accepted: 03/23/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Odours are transported in turbulent plumes, which result in rapid concentration fluctuations1,2 that contain rich information about the olfactory scenery, such as the composition and location of an odour source2-4. However, it is unclear whether the mammalian olfactory system can use the underlying temporal structure to extract information about the environment. Here we show that ten-millisecond odour pulse patterns produce distinct responses in olfactory receptor neurons. In operant conditioning experiments, mice discriminated temporal correlations of rapidly fluctuating odours at frequencies of up to 40 Hz. In imaging and electrophysiological recordings, such correlation information could be readily extracted from the activity of mitral and tufted cells-the output neurons of the olfactory bulb. Furthermore, temporal correlation of odour concentrations5 reliably predicted whether odorants emerged from the same or different sources in naturalistic environments with complex airflow. Experiments in which mice were trained on such tasks and probed using synthetic correlated stimuli at different frequencies suggest that mice can use the temporal structure of odours to extract information about space. Thus, the mammalian olfactory system has access to unexpectedly fast temporal features in odour stimuli. This endows animals with the capacity to overcome key behavioural challenges such as odour source separation5, figure-ground segregation6 and odour localization7 by extracting information about space from temporal odour dynamics.
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5
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Kozma MT, Ngo-Vu H, Rump MT, Bobkov YV, Ache BW, Derby CD. Single cell transcriptomes reveal expression patterns of chemoreceptor genes in olfactory sensory neurons of the Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus. BMC Genomics 2020; 21:649. [PMID: 32962631 PMCID: PMC7510291 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-020-07034-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2020] [Accepted: 08/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Crustaceans express several classes of receptor genes in their antennules, which house olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and non-olfactory chemosensory neurons. Transcriptomics studies reveal that candidate chemoreceptor proteins include variant Ionotropic Receptors (IRs) including both co-receptor IRs and tuning IRs, Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channels, Gustatory Receptors, epithelial sodium channels, and class A G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). The Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus, expresses in its antennules nearly 600 IRs, 17 TRP channels, 1 Gustatory Receptor, 7 epithelial sodium channels, 81 GPCRs, 6 G proteins, and dozens of enzymes in signaling pathways. However, the specific combinatorial expression patterns of these proteins in single sensory neurons are not known for any crustacean, limiting our understanding of how their chemosensory systems encode chemical quality. RESULTS The goal of this study was to use transcriptomics to describe expression patterns of chemoreceptor genes in OSNs of P. argus. We generated and analyzed transcriptomes from 7 single OSNs, some of which were shown to respond to a food odor, as well as an additional 7 multicell transcriptomes from preparations containing few (2-4), several (ca. 15), or many (ca. 400) OSNs. We found that each OSN expressed the same 2 co-receptor IRs (IR25a, IR93a) but not the other 2 antennular coIRs (IR8a, IR76b), 9-53 tuning IRs but only one to a few in high abundance, the same 5 TRP channels plus up to 5 additional TRPs, 12-17 GPCRs including the same 5 expressed in every single cell transcriptome, the same 3 G proteins plus others, many enzymes in the signaling pathways, but no Gustatory Receptors or epithelial sodium channels. The greatest difference in receptor expression among the OSNs was the identity of the tuning IRs. CONCLUSIONS Our results provide an initial view of the combinatorial expression patterns of receptor molecules in single OSNs in one species of decapod crustacean, including receptors directly involved in olfactory transduction and others likely involved in modulation. Our results also suggest differences in receptor expression in OSNs vs. other chemosensory neurons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mihika T Kozma
- Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA
| | - Hanh Ngo-Vu
- Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA
| | - Matthew T Rump
- Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA
| | - Yuriy V Bobkov
- Whitney Laboratory, University of Florida, St. Augustine, Florida, 32084, USA
| | - Barry W Ache
- Whitney Laboratory, University of Florida, St. Augustine, Florida, 32084, USA
| | - Charles D Derby
- Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA.
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6
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Ukhanov K, Bobkov YV, Martens JR, Ache BW. Initial Characterization of a Subpopulation of Inherent Oscillatory Mammalian Olfactory Receptor Neurons. Chem Senses 2020; 44:583-592. [PMID: 31420672 DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjz052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Published evidence suggests that inherent rhythmically active or "bursting" primary olfactory receptor neurons (bORNs) in crustaceans have the previously undescribed functional property of encoding olfactory information by having their rhythmicity entrained by the odor stimulus. In order to determine whether such bORN-based encoding is a fundamental feature of olfaction that extends beyond crustaceans, we patch-clamped bORN-like ORNs in mice, characterized their dynamic properties, and show they align with the dynamic properties of lobster bORNs. We then characterized bORN-like activity by imaging the olfactory epithelium of OMP-GCaMP6f mice. Next, we showed rhythmic activity is not dependent upon the endogenous OR by patching ORNs in OR/GFP mice. Lastly, we showed the properties of bORN-like ORNs characterized in mice generalize to rats. Our findings suggest encoding odor time should be viewed as a fundamental feature of olfaction with the potential to be used to navigate odor plumes in animals as diverse as crustaceans and mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirill Ukhanov
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.,Center for Smell and Taste, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Yuriy V Bobkov
- Whitney Laboratory, University of Florida, USA.,Center for Smell and Taste, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Jeffrey R Martens
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.,Center for Smell and Taste, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Barry W Ache
- Whitney Laboratory, University of Florida, USA.,Departments of Biology and Neuroscience, University of Florida, USA.,Center for Smell and Taste, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.,McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
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7
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Interpreting the Spatial-Temporal Structure of Turbulent Chemical Plumes Utilized in Odor Tracking by Lobsters. FLUIDS 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/fluids5020082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Olfactory systems in animals play a major role in finding food and mates, avoiding predators, and communication. Chemical tracking in odorant plumes has typically been considered a spatial information problem where individuals navigate towards higher concentration. Recent research involving chemosensory neurons in the spiny lobster, Panulirus argus, show they possess rhythmically active or ‘bursting’ olfactory receptor neurons that respond to the intermittency in the odor signal. This suggests a possible, previously unexplored olfactory search strategy that enables lobsters to utilize the temporal variability within a turbulent plume to track the source. This study utilized computational fluid dynamics to simulate the turbulent dispersal of odorants and assess a number of search strategies thought to aid lobsters. These strategies include quantification of concentration magnitude using chemosensory antennules and leg chemosensors, simultaneous sampling of water velocities using antennule mechanosensors, and utilization of antennules to quantify intermittency of the odorant plume. Results show that lobsters can utilize intermittency in the odorant signal to track an odorant plume faster and with greater success in finding the source than utilizing concentration alone. However, the additional use of lobster leg chemosensors reduced search time compared to both antennule intermittency and concentration strategies alone by providing spatially separated odorant sensors along the body.
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8
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Michaelis BT, Leathers KW, Bobkov YV, Ache BW, Principe JC, Baharloo R, Park IM, Reidenbach MA. Odor tracking in aquatic organisms: the importance of temporal and spatial intermittency of the turbulent plume. Sci Rep 2020; 10:7961. [PMID: 32409665 PMCID: PMC7224200 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-64766-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2020] [Accepted: 04/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
In aquatic and terrestrial environments, odorants are dispersed by currents that create concentration distributions that are spatially and temporally complex. Animals navigating in a plume must therefore rely upon intermittent, and time-varying information to find the source. Navigation has typically been studied as a spatial information problem, with the aim of movement towards higher mean concentrations. However, this spatial information alone, without information of the temporal dynamics of the plume, is insufficient to explain the accuracy and speed of many animals tracking odors. Recent studies have identified a subpopulation of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) that consist of intrinsically rhythmically active 'bursting' ORNs (bORNs) in the lobster, Panulirus argus. As a population, bORNs provide a neural mechanism dedicated to encoding the time between odor encounters. Using a numerical simulation of a large-scale plume, the lobster is used as a framework to construct a computer model to examine the utility of intermittency for orienting within a plume. Results show that plume intermittency is reliably detectable when sampling simulated odorants on the order of seconds, and provides the most information when animals search along the plume edge. Both the temporal and spatial variation in intermittency is predictably structured on scales relevant for a searching animal that encodes olfactory information utilizing bORNs, and therefore is suitable and useful as a navigational cue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brenden T Michaelis
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Kyle W Leathers
- Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Yuriy V Bobkov
- Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida, St. Augustine, FL, USA
| | - Barry W Ache
- Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida, St. Augustine, FL, USA
- Departments of Biology and Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Jose C Principe
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Raheleh Baharloo
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Il Memming Park
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | - Matthew A Reidenbach
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
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9
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Short term depression, presynaptic inhibition and local neuron diversity play key functional roles in the insect antennal lobe. J Comput Neurosci 2020; 48:213-227. [PMID: 32388764 DOI: 10.1007/s10827-020-00747-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2019] [Revised: 03/13/2020] [Accepted: 04/17/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
As the oldest, but least understood sensory system in evolution, the olfactory system represents one of the most challenging research targets in sensory neurobiology. Although a large number of computational models of the olfactory system have been proposed, they do not account for the diversity in physiology, connectivity of local neurons, and several recent discoveries in the insect antennal lobe, a major olfactory organ in insects. Recent studies revealed that the response of some projection neurons were reduced by application of a GABA antagonist, and that insects are sensitive to odor pulse frequency. To account for these observations, we propose a spiking neural circuit model of the insect antennal lobe. Based on recent anatomical and physiological studies, we included three sub-types of local neurons as well as synaptic short-term depression (STD) in the model and showed that the interaction between STD and local neurons resulted in frequency-sensitive responses. We further discovered that the unexpected response of the projection neurons to the GABA antagonist is the result of complex interactions between STD and presynaptic inhibition, which is required for enhancing sensitivity to odor stimuli. Finally, we found that odor discrimination is improved if the innervation of the local neurons in the glomeruli follows a specific pattern. Our findings suggest that STD, presynaptic inhibition and diverse physiology and connectivity of local neurons are not independent properties, but they interact to play key roles in the function of antennal lobes.
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10
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Whisker Vibrations and the Activity of Trigeminal Primary Afferents in Response to Airflow. J Neurosci 2019; 39:5881-5896. [PMID: 31097620 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2971-18.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2018] [Revised: 04/18/2019] [Accepted: 04/30/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Rodents are the most commonly studied model system in neuroscience, but surprisingly few studies investigate the natural sensory stimuli that rodent nervous systems evolved to interpret. Even fewer studies examine neural responses to these natural stimuli. Decades of research have investigated the rat vibrissal (whisker) system in the context of direct touch and tactile stimulation, but recent work has shown that rats also use their whiskers to help detect and localize airflow. The present study investigates the neural basis for this ability as dictated by the mechanical response of whiskers to airflow. Mechanical experiments show that a whisker's vibration magnitude depends on airspeed and the intrinsic shape of the whisker. Surprisingly, the direction of the whisker's vibration changes as a function of airflow speed: vibrations transition from parallel to perpendicular with respect to the airflow as airspeed increases. Recordings from primary sensory trigeminal ganglion neurons show that these neurons exhibit responses consistent with those that would be predicted from direct touch. Trigeminal neuron firing rate increases with airspeed, is modulated by the orientation of the whisker relative to the airflow, and is influenced by the whisker's resonant frequencies. We develop a simple model to describe how a population of neurons could leverage mechanical relationships to decode both airspeed and direction. These results open new avenues for studying vibrissotactile regions of the brain in the context of evolutionarily important airflow-sensing behaviors and olfactory search. Although this study used only female rats, all results are expected to generalize to male rats.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The rodent vibrissal (whisker) system has been studied for decades in the context of direct tactile sensation, but recent work has indicated that rats also use whiskers to help localize airflow. Neural circuits in somatosensory regions of the rodent brain thus likely evolved in part to process airflow information. This study investigates the whiskers' mechanical response to airflow and the associated neural response. Airspeed affects the magnitude of whisker vibration and the response magnitude of whisker-sensitive primary sensory neurons in the trigeminal ganglion. Surprisingly, the direction of vibration and the associated directionally dependent neural response changes with airspeed. These findings suggest a population code for airflow speed and direction and open new avenues for studying vibrissotactile regions of the brain.
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11
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Nocturnal navigation by whip spiders: antenniform legs mediate near-distance olfactory localization of a shelter. Anim Behav 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.01.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
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12
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Kamio M, Derby CD. Finding food: how marine invertebrates use chemical cues to track and select food. Nat Prod Rep 2017; 34:514-528. [DOI: 10.1039/c6np00121a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
This review covers recent research on how marine invertebrates use chemical cues to find and select food.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michiya Kamio
- Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology
- Tokyo 108-8477
- Japan
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13
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Ache BW, Hein AM, Bobkov YV, Principe JC. Smelling Time: A Neural Basis for Olfactory Scene Analysis. Trends Neurosci 2016; 39:649-655. [PMID: 27594700 PMCID: PMC5048551 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2016.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2016] [Revised: 07/29/2016] [Accepted: 08/14/2016] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Behavioral evidence from phylogenetically diverse animals and from humans suggests that, by extracting temporal information inherent in the olfactory signal, olfaction is more involved in interpreting space and time than heretofore imagined. If this is the case, the olfactory system must have neural mechanisms capable of encoding time at intervals relevant to the turbulent odor world in which many animals live. Here, we review evidence that animals can use populations of rhythmically active or 'bursting' olfactory receptor neurons (bORNs) to extract and encode temporal information inherent in natural olfactory signals. We postulate that bORNs represent an unsuspected neural mechanism through which time can be accurately measured, and that 'smelling time' completes the requirements for true olfactory scene analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barry W Ache
- Whitney Laboratory for Marine Biosciences, Center for Smell and Taste, and McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
| | - Andrew M Hein
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Yuriy V Bobkov
- Whitney Laboratory for Marine Biosciences, Center for Smell and Taste, and McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Jose C Principe
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Center for Smell and Taste, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
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14
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Loucks RH, Smith RE, Fisher EB. A Response to the letter to the editor 'Lack of interaction between finfish aquaculture and lobster catches in coastal Nova Scotia'. MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 2016; 110:616-618. [PMID: 27519489 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.06.111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2016] [Accepted: 06/13/2016] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Ronald H Loucks
- RH Loucks Oceanology Ltd., 24 Clayton Park Drive, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3M 1L3, Canada.
| | - Ruth E Smith
- RH Loucks Oceanology Ltd., 24 Clayton Park Drive, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3M 1L3, Canada
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15
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Natural search algorithms as a bridge between organisms, evolution, and ecology. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2016; 113:9413-20. [PMID: 27496324 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1606195113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to navigate is a hallmark of living systems, from single cells to higher animals. Searching for targets, such as food or mates in particular, is one of the fundamental navigational tasks many organisms must execute to survive and reproduce. Here, we argue that a recent surge of studies of the proximate mechanisms that underlie search behavior offers a new opportunity to integrate the biophysics and neuroscience of sensory systems with ecological and evolutionary processes, closing a feedback loop that promises exciting new avenues of scientific exploration at the frontier of systems biology.
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16
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Park IJ, Hein AM, Bobkov YV, Reidenbach MA, Ache BW, Principe JC. Neurally Encoding Time for Olfactory Navigation. PLoS Comput Biol 2016; 12:e1004682. [PMID: 26730727 PMCID: PMC4711578 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004682] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2015] [Accepted: 11/30/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Accurately encoding time is one of the fundamental challenges faced by the nervous system in mediating behavior. We recently reported that some animals have a specialized population of rhythmically active neurons in their olfactory organs with the potential to peripherally encode temporal information about odor encounters. If these neurons do indeed encode the timing of odor arrivals, it should be possible to demonstrate that this capacity has some functional significance. Here we show how this sensory input can profoundly influence an animal’s ability to locate the source of odor cues in realistic turbulent environments—a common task faced by species that rely on olfactory cues for navigation. Using detailed data from a turbulent plume created in the laboratory, we reconstruct the spatiotemporal behavior of a real odor field. We use recurrence theory to show that information about position relative to the source of the odor plume is embedded in the timing between odor pulses. Then, using a parameterized computational model, we show how an animal can use populations of rhythmically active neurons to capture and encode this temporal information in real time, and use it to efficiently navigate to an odor source. Our results demonstrate that the capacity to accurately encode temporal information about sensory cues may be crucial for efficient olfactory navigation. More generally, our results suggest a mechanism for extracting and encoding temporal information from the sensory environment that could have broad utility for neural information processing. Many animals navigate turbulent environments using odor cues, a behavior known as olfactory search. We propose a neural mechanism for olfactory search based on evidence that a functional subset of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) called bursting ORNs or bORNs can encode the time intervals between successive encounters with odor. We show that these time intervals are estimators of the recurrence time, an information-rich statistic of the turbulent flow. Using a computational model parameterized with data from an actual turbulent plume, we demonstrate that a searcher can locate an odor source efficiently using only input from bORNs. These findings provide scientific evidence that the most important navigational information captured by the olfactory system may come in the form of measurements of time.
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Affiliation(s)
- In Jun Park
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America
| | - Andrew M. Hein
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Yuriy V. Bobkov
- Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida, St. Augustine, Florida, United States of America
- Center for Smell and Taste, and McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America
| | - Matthew A. Reidenbach
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America
| | - Barry W. Ache
- Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida, St. Augustine, Florida, United States of America
- Center for Smell and Taste, and McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America
- Departments of Biology and Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America
| | - Jose C. Principe
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America
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Huston SJ, Stopfer M, Cassenaer S, Aldworth ZN, Laurent G. Neural Encoding of Odors during Active Sampling and in Turbulent Plumes. Neuron 2015; 88:403-18. [PMID: 26456047 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2015.09.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2014] [Revised: 05/11/2015] [Accepted: 08/31/2015] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Sensory inputs are often fluctuating and intermittent, yet animals reliably utilize them to direct behavior. Here we ask how natural stimulus fluctuations influence the dynamic neural encoding of odors. Using the locust olfactory system, we isolated two main causes of odor intermittency: chaotic odor plumes and active sampling behaviors. Despite their irregularity, chaotic odor plumes still drove dynamic neural response features including the synchronization, temporal patterning, and short-term plasticity of spiking in projection neurons, enabling classifier-based stimulus identification and activating downstream decoders (Kenyon cells). Locusts can also impose odor intermittency through active sampling movements with their unrestrained antennae. Odors triggered immediate, spatially targeted antennal scanning that, paradoxically, weakened individual neural responses. However, these frequent but weaker responses were highly informative about stimulus location. Thus, not only are odor-elicited dynamic neural responses compatible with natural stimulus fluctuations and important for stimulus identification, but locusts actively increase intermittency, possibly to improve stimulus localization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen J Huston
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA
| | - Mark Stopfer
- National Institutes of Health, NICHD, 35 Lincoln Drive, MSC 3715, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Stijn Cassenaer
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Zane N Aldworth
- National Institutes of Health, NICHD, 35 Lincoln Drive, MSC 3715, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Gilles Laurent
- Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Max-von-Laue-Strasse 4, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
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Nydegger UE, Escobar PM, Risch L, Risch M, Stanga Z. Chronobiology and circadian rhythms establish a connection to diagnosis. Diagnosis (Berl) 2014. [DOI: 10.1515/dx-2014-0036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
AbstractCircadian rhythms are synchronized by the light/dark (L/D) cycle over the 24-h day. A suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus governs time keeping based on melanopsin messages from the retina in the eyes and transduces regulatory signals to tissues through an array of hormonal, metabolic and neural outputs. Currently, vague impressions on circadian regulation in health and disease are replaced by scientific facts: in addition to L/D cyling, oscillation is maintained by genetic (
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Li A, Gire DH, Bozza T, Restrepo D. Precise detection of direct glomerular input duration by the olfactory bulb. J Neurosci 2014; 34:16058-64. [PMID: 25429146 PMCID: PMC4244471 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.3382-14.2014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2014] [Revised: 10/07/2014] [Accepted: 10/15/2014] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Sensory neuron input to the olfactory bulb (OB) was activated precisely for different durations with blue light in mice expressing channelrhodopsin-2 in olfactory sensory neurons. Behaviorally the mice discriminated differences of 10 ms in duration of direct glomerular activation. In addition, a subset of mitral/tufted cells in the OB of awake mice responded tonically therefore conveying information on stimulus duration. Our study provides evidence that duration of the input to glomeruli not synchronized to sniffing is detected. This potent cue may be used to obtain information on puffs in odor plumes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anan Li
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Neuroscience Program and Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado 80045, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences/State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan, China 430071
| | - David H Gire
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, and
| | - Thomas Bozza
- Department of Neurobiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208
| | - Diego Restrepo
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Neuroscience Program and Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado 80045,
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Loucks RH, Smith RE, Fisher EB. Interactions between finfish aquaculture and lobster catches in a sheltered bay. MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 2014; 88:255-9. [PMID: 25242235 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.08.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2014] [Revised: 08/22/2014] [Accepted: 08/27/2014] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
Interactions between open-net pen finfish aquaculture and lobster catches in a sheltered bay in Nova Scotia, Canada, were investigated using fishermen's participatory research in annual lobster trap surveys over seven years. Fishermen recorded lobster catches during the last two weeks of May from 2007 to 2013. Catches for each trap haul were recorded separately for ovigerous and market-sized lobsters. Catch trends within the bay were compared to regional trends. Results of correlation analyses indicated that ovigerous catch trends were strongly affected by the fish farm's feeding/fallow periods. There was no significant correlation between trends for bay and LFA lobster landings. Patterns of lobster catch per unit effort extending over considerable distance in Port Mouton Bay appear to be influenced by proximity to the fish farm regardless of year-to-year variation in water temperatures and weather conditions. Odours and habitat changes surrounding open-net pen finfish operations are potential factors affecting lobster displacement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ronald H Loucks
- RH Loucks Oceanology Ltd., 24 Clayton Park Drive, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3M 1L3, Canada
| | - Ruth E Smith
- RH Loucks Oceanology Ltd., 24 Clayton Park Drive, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3M 1L3, Canada
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