Coupled map model for spatio-temporal processing in the olfactory bulb

• Main Authors: de Almeida, L, Idiart, M, Quillfeldt, J A
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0094-243X
• DOI: 10.1063/1.2709586

Odor processing in the animal olfactory system is still an open problem in modern neuroscience. It is a common understanding that the spatial code provided by the activity distribution of the olfactory receptor cells (ORC) due the presence of an odorant is transformed into a spatio-temporal code in the mitral cell (MC) layer in the case of mammals, or the projection neurons (PN) in the case of insects, that is decoded later along the neural path. The putative role of the spatio-temporal coding is to disambiguate the stimulus putting it in a more robust representation that allows odor separation, categorization, and recognition. Oscillations due to lateral inhibition among MC's (or PN's) may play an important part in the code as well as neural adaptation. To shed some light on their possible role in the olfaction processing, we study the properties of a simple network model. Upon the presentation of a random distributed input it respond with a rich spatio-temporal structure where two distinct phases are observed. We discuss their properties and implications in information processing.