Search
Presentation Details
| Poster #360 The neural signature of perceived odor intensity |
| Beatrice Barra1, Robert Pellegrino2, Ian Chapman2, Andrew Sheriff3, Max Seppo4, Jacqueline Zhao1, Aiden Streleckis2, David Brann6, Sandeep R. Datta6, Kevin M. Franks5, Alexander Fleischmann4, Alexei Koulakov7, Kevin Bolding2, Christina Zelano3, Dmitry Rinberg1, Joel D. Mainland2, 8 1Neuroscience Institute, New York University Grossman School of Medicine , New York, NY, United States 2Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, United States 3Department of Neurology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States 4Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States 5Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical School, Durham, NC, United States 6Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States 7Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, United States 8Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States |
Olfaction is a cardinal sense for most animal species. Behaviors such as foraging and navigation all heavily rely on the ability to interpret odor intensity information. Understanding how the brain encodes odor intensity is vital for gaining insight into how the brain accomplishes odor-guided behaviors. Studies showed that changes in odorant concentration correlate with changes in neuronal firing rate, temporal shifts in response pattern relative to inhalation, or overall synchrony of neural responses. However, odor concentrations are inappropriate proxies for perceived intensity: at similar concentrations some odors evoke strong sensations, while others are barely perceivable. Therefore, it remains unclear which neural phenomena underlie the perception of odor intensity. One major challenge in studying the neural encoding of intensity is obtaining perceptual reports and neural recordings from the same animal model. Here, we combined mouse and human data to formulate a unified theory of the neural encoding of odor intensity. We used a behavioral paradigm in mice that allowed us to measure iso-intense odorant concentrations. In mice, we computed the iso-intense concentrations for three odor pairs at three concentration ranges. We repeated this paradigm in humans and verified that it accurately predicts panelists’ explicit intensity ratings. We then combined these results with calcium imaging in mice and electrophysiology recordings in mice and humans to ask which neural features in the olfactory bulb and piriform cortex predict intensity equivalency at iso-intense concentrations. We propose that odor intensity could be encoded by neural firing synchronization. By combining mouse and human behavior and recordings, we can propose robust hypotheses on the neural encoding of perceived odor intensity. |