Representations of odor in the piriform cortex

Generating sparse and selective third-order responses in the olfactory system of the fly

In the antennal lobe of Drosophila, information about odors is transferred from olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) to projection neurons (PNs), which then send axons to neurons in the lateral horn of the protocerebrum (LHNs) and to Kenyon cells (KCs) in the mushroom body. The transformation from ORN to PN responses can be described by a normalization model similar to what has been used in modeling visually responsive neurons. We study the implications of this transformation for the generation of LHN and KC responses under the hypothesis that LHN responses are highly selective and therefore suitable for driving innate behaviors, whereas KCs provide a more general sparse representation of odors suitable for forming learned behavioral associations. Our results indicate that the transformation from ORN to PN firing rates in the antennal lobe equalizes the magnitudes of and decorrelates responses to different odors through feedforward nonlinearities and lateral suppression within the circuitry of the antennal lobe, and we study how these two components affect LHN and KC responses.

Distinctive classes of GABAergic interneurons provide layer-specific phasic inhibition in the anterior piriform cortex

The primary olfactory (or piriform) cortex is a trilaminar paleocortex that is seen increasingly as an attractive model system for the study of cortical sensory processing. Recent findings highlight the importance of γ-amino butyric acid (GABA)-releasing interneurons for the function of the piriform cortex (PC), yet little is known about the different types of interneurons in the PC. Here, we provide the first detailed functional characterization of the major classes of GABAergic interneurons in the anterior piriform cortex (aPC) and show how these classes differentially engage in phasic synaptic inhibition. By measuring the electrical properties of interneurons and combining this with information about their morphology, laminar location, and expression of molecular markers, we have identified 5 major classes in the aPC of the mouse. Each layer contains at least one class of interneuron that is tuned to fire either earlier or later in a train of stimuli resembling the input received by the PC in vivo during olfaction. This suggests that the different subtypes of interneuron are specialized for providing synaptic inhibition at different phases of the sniff cycle. Thus, our results suggest mechanisms by which classes of interneurons play specific roles in the processing performed by the PC in order to recognize odors.

Sparse and powerful cortical spikes

Activity in cortical networks is heterogeneous, sparse and often precisely timed. The functional significance of sparseness and precise spike timing is debated, but our understanding of the developmental and synaptic mechanisms that shape neuronal discharge patterns has improved. Evidence for highly specialized, selective and abstract cortical response properties is accumulating. Singe-cell stimulation experiments demonstrate a high sensitivity of cortical networks to the action potentials of some, but not all, single neurons. It is unclear how this sensitivity of cortical networks to small perturbations comes about and whether it is a generic property of cortex. The unforeseen sensitivity to cortical spikes puts serious constraints on the nature of neural coding schemes.

Odor information processing by the olfactory bulb analyzed in gene-targeted mice

In mammals, olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) expressing a specific odorant receptor (OR) gene project with precise stereotypy onto mitral/tufted (M/T) cells in the main olfactory bulb (MOB). It remains challenging to understand how incoming olfactory signals are transformed into outputs of M/T cells. By recording from OSNs expressing mouse I7 receptor and their postsynaptic neurons in the bulb, we found that I7 OSNs and their corresponding M/T cells exhibit similarly selective tuning profiles at low concentrations. Increasing the concentration significantly reduces response selectivity for both OSNs and M/T cells, although the tuning curve of M/T cells remains comparatively narrow. By contrast, interneurons in the MOB are broadly tuned, and blocking GABAergic neurotransmission reduces selectivity of M/T cells at high odorant concentrations. Our results indicate that olfactory information carried by an OR is channeled to its corresponding M/T cells and support the role of lateral inhibition via interneurons in sharpening the tuning of M/T cells.

Odor representations in mammalian cortical circuits

Spatial and temporal activity patterns of olfactory bulb projection neurons underlie the initial representations of odors in the brain. However, olfactory perception ultimately requires the integration of olfactory bulb output in higher cortical brain regions. Recent studies reveal that odor representations are sparse and highly distributed in the rodent primary olfactory (piriform) cortex. Furthermore, odor-evoked inhibition is far more widespread and broadly tuned than excitation in piriform cortex pyramidal cells. Other recent studies highlight how olfactory sensory inputs are integrated within pyramidal cell dendrites and that feedback projections from piriform cortex to olfactory bulb interneurons are a source of synaptic plasticity.