Processing olfactory information of a single receptor type.

EZEQUIEL M. ARNEODO; KRISTINA PENIKIS; THOMAS BOZZA; DMITRY RINBERG

Washington DC

Conferencia; Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting; 2014

Society for Neuroscience

Olfaction stands as an ideal model system for studying transformations of early sensory inputs due to the genetic tractability of the first-order neurons and the compactness of the first processing stages, as the olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) are only two synapses away from higher brain areas. The transformation imposed on the initial representation within the bulb remains elusive because a) it is difficult to observe the output of a second order cell while knowing its specific input, b) it should be adressed in awake animal as network dynamics change drastically with wakefulness. Finding this transformation is key to understand how the brain We have developed an optogenetic technique to identify and record odor responses in awake animals from the second order neurons connected to a specific population of OSNs (those that carry the M72 receptor type). We chose odorants for which responses of M72 receptor neurons have been well characterized. In this way we can find out features of the input/output transfer function over the single channel of information determined by the activity of a unique receptor type. We find that the homogeneity of the responses amongst these cells is high for some odors and very low for some others, which might be a mechanism for classifying the relevance of this receptor type to the pattern of OSNs activations that identifies an odor.