Presentation Details
The influence of respiration and nasal airflow on olfactory and non-olfactory signaling differs across neuronal populations in the olfactory bulb

Keith Perkins, John McGann.

Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA

Abstract


Even the earliest olfactory neurophysiology observed oscillatory rhythms in the neural activity in the olfactory bulb (Adrian 1950). Here we synthesize data from diverse experiments showing the influence of nasal airflow on signaling in different parts of the olfactory bulb circuit (olfactory nerve terminals, short axon cells, periglomerular cells, and mitral cells) at rest, during olfactory stimulation, and during non-olfactory somatosensory stimulation. Activity from each cell type was assessed using optical neurophysiological methods to observe population-level calcium dynamics using GCaMP6f expressed in different mouse lines. Key experiments include effects of tracheotomy and naris occlusion on spontaneous oscillations, demonstrating that some oscillations in some parts of the circuit are primarily driven by peripheral airflow but some respiration-coherent activity does not require peripheral airflow. Odor-evoked activity was strongly coupled to respiration in all cell types (though with disparate phase lags), which may reflect phasic exposure to the physical odorant. However, non-olfactory stimuli like tail shock and trigeminal nerve stimulation also evoked respiration-locked activity in periglomerular, short axon, and mitral cells that was also dependent on nasal airflow. We conclude that phasic nasal airflow plays a critical role in shaping olfactory bulb activity beyond mere imposition of temporal structure on odor stimulus delivery. The contributions of peripheral and centrifugal respiratory inputs across early olfactory circuitry suggest a differential role in olfactory information processing. Limitations of these studies include the use of anesthesia (to permit tracheotomy and trigeminal stimulation) and the inability of the imaging method to follow oscillations faster than12 Hz.

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