Uchida, N., Mainen, Z. F. (2007) Odor concentration invariance by chemical ratio coding. Front Syst Neurosci, 1. p. 3.
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Abstract
Many animal species rely on chemical signals to extract ecologically important information from the environment. Yet in natural conditions chemical signals will frequently undergo concentration changes that produce differences in both level and pattern of activation of olfactory receptor neurons. Thus, a central problem in olfactory processing is how the system is able to recognize the same stimulus across different concentrations. To signal species identity for mate recognition, some insects use the ratio of two components in a binary chemical mixture to produce a code that is invariant to dilution. Here, using psychophysical methods, we show that rats also classify binary odor mixtures according to the molar ratios of their components, spontaneously generalizing over at least a tenfold concentration range. These results indicate that extracting chemical ratio information is not restricted to pheromone signaling and suggest a general solution for concentration-invariant odor recognition by the mammalian olfactory system.
| Item Type: | Paper |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | organism description > animal behavior organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons organism description > animal behavior > odor recognition organism description > animal > mammal > rodent > rat organism description > animal > mammal > rodent > rat |
| CSHL Authors: | |
| Communities: | CSHL labs > Mainen lab |
| Depositing User: | CSHL Librarian |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Date Deposited: | 02 Sep 2011 21:20 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Apr 2018 20:28 |
| PMCID: | PMC2526272 |
| Related URLs: | |
| URI: | https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/15266 |
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