Odor identity coding by distributed ensembles of neurons in the mouse olfactory cortex

Olfactory perception and behaviors critically depend on the ability to identify an odor across a wide range of concentrations. Here, we use calcium imaging to determine how odor identity is encoded in olfactory cortex. We find that, despite considerable trial-to-trial variability, odor identity can...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:eLife 2017-05, Vol.6
Main Authors: Roland, Benjamin, Deneux, Thomas, Franks, Kevin M, Bathellier, Brice, Fleischmann, Alexander
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Calcium imaging
Calcium Signaling
Cognitive Sciences
cortex
Cortex (olfactory)
Cortex (piriform)
Datasets
Hypotheses
Life Sciences
Mice
Models, Neurological
mouse
Neural coding
Neurobiology
Neuroimaging
Neurons
Neurons - physiology
Neurons and Cognition
Neuroscience
Neurosciences
Odor
odor coding
Odorants
Odors
olfaction
Olfactory bulb
Olfactory Perception
Optical Imaging
Piriform Cortex
Piriform Cortex - physiology
Psychology and behavior
Spatial discrimination
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Summary:Olfactory perception and behaviors critically depend on the ability to identify an odor across a wide range of concentrations. Here, we use calcium imaging to determine how odor identity is encoded in olfactory cortex. We find that, despite considerable trial-to-trial variability, odor identity can accurately be decoded from ensembles of co-active neurons that are distributed across piriform cortex without any apparent spatial organization. However, piriform response patterns change substantially over a 100-fold change in odor concentration, apparently degrading the population representation of odor identity. We show that this problem can be resolved by decoding odor identity from a subpopulation of concentration-invariant piriform neurons. These concentration-invariant neurons are overrepresented in piriform cortex but not in olfactory bulb mitral and tufted cells. We therefore propose that distinct perceptual features of odors are encoded in independent subnetworks of neurons in the olfactory cortex.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/elife.26337