A combined perceptual, physico-chemical, and imaging approach to 'odour-distances' suggests a categorizing function of the Drosophila antennal lobe

How do physico-chemical stimulus features, perception, and physiology relate? Given the multi-layered and parallel architecture of brains, the question specifically is where physiological activity patterns correspond to stimulus features and/or perception. Perceived distances between six odour pairs...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2011-09, Vol.6 (9), p.e24300-e24300
Main Authors: Niewalda, Thomas, Völler, Thomas, Eschbach, Claire, Ehmer, Julia, Chou, Wen-Chuang, Timme, Marc, Fiala, André, Gerber, Bertram
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activity patterns
Animals
Antennal lobe
Arthropod Antennae
Arthropod Antennae - physiology
Bees
Behavior, Animal
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Biology
Calcium
Drosophila
Drosophila melanogaster
Drosophila melanogaster - physiology
Funnels
Imaging, Three-Dimensional
Imaging, Three-Dimensional - methods
Information processing
Insects
Life Sciences
Medicine
Multilayers
Mutation
Mutation - genetics
Neurons
Neurosciences
Octanol
Odor recognition
Odorants
Odorants - analysis
Odors
Olfactory Receptor Neurons
Olfactory Receptor Neurons - physiology
Perception
Perception - physiology
Perceptions
Physiological aspects
Sensory integration
Sensory neurons
Symmetry
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Summary:How do physico-chemical stimulus features, perception, and physiology relate? Given the multi-layered and parallel architecture of brains, the question specifically is where physiological activity patterns correspond to stimulus features and/or perception. Perceived distances between six odour pairs are defined behaviourally from four independent odour recognition tasks. We find that, in register with the physico-chemical distances of these odours, perceived distances for 3-octanol and n-amylacetate are consistently smallest in all four tasks, while the other five odour pairs are about equally distinct. Optical imaging in the antennal lobe, using a calcium sensor transgenically expressed in only first-order sensory or only second-order olfactory projection neurons, reveals that 3-octanol and n-amylacetate are distinctly represented in sensory neurons, but appear merged in projection neurons. These results may suggest that within-antennal lobe processing funnels sensory signals into behaviourally meaningful categories, in register with the physico-chemical relatedness of the odours.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0024300