Odor perception is altered by learning and predicted by changes at early olfactory processing

AGUSTIN LARA; MARACHLIAN EMILIANO; LOCATELLI FERNANDO

Buenos Aires

Workshop; Fronteras en Biociencias 2018; 2018

IBIOBA-CONICET y Max Planck Institut

It is well known that the ability of an animalto detect specific features in complex stimuli can be improved with training. Acommon explanation is the central reallocation of attentional resources in waysthat favor the detection of a match between the sensory input and a searchimage. However, a less investigated alternative is that experience tunes theprimary processing of sensory systems in a way that enhances the sensibility tothe learned features while reducing the gain toward non learned features. Detecting meaningful elements embedded incomplex stimuli is particularly relevant in olfaction since naturally occurringodors are normally mixtures of different odorant molecules. Here we studied inwhich extent, the ability of an animal to detect a specific odorant within amixture depends on experience and on changes produced at the early olfactoryprocessing centers.We used honey bees as model because oftheir ability to detect and discriminate odors and because we have established inprevious works that the neural representation of odors at early olfactorysensory processing centers is altered by learning. We performed a series of behavioralassays aimed at measuring the ability of animals to detect an odor within amixture; if this ability is affected by previous olfactory experience, and inwhich extent these changes in perception can be predicted by changes in theantennal lobe. First, we found that bees are highly efficient in detectingrewarded components embedded in complex mixtures. Second, we found that theability to recognize mixtures components is affected by previous olfactory experience.Third, we found that changes in the perceptual quality of an odor mixturecoincide with changes in the way that mixture is encoded in the antennal lobes.