In vivo Optical Access to Olfactory Sensory Neuronsin the Mouse Olfactory Epithelium

Longitudinal imaging of individual olfactory sensory neurons in situ

Olfactory sensory neurons are found deep within the nasal cavity at a spatially restricted sheet of sensory epithelium. Due to their location behind the nasal turbinates, accessing these cells for physiological measurements in living animals is challenging, and until recently, not possible. As a further complication, damage to the overlying bone on the dorsal surface of the snout disrupts the negative pressure distribution throughout the nasal cavities, which fundamentally alters how odorants are delivered to the sensory epithelium and the inherent mechanosensory properties of olfactory sensory neurons in live animals. The approach described here circumvents these limitations and allows for optical access to olfactory sensory neurons in mice across time scales ranging from days to months.

Stimulus Driven Functional Transformations in the Early Olfactory System

Olfactory stimuli are encountered across a wide range of odor concentrations in natural environments. Defining the neural computations that support concentration invariant odor perception, odor discrimination, and odor-background segmentation across a wide range of stimulus intensities remains an open question in the field. In principle, adaptation could allow the olfactory system to adjust sensory representations to the current stimulus conditions, a well-known process in other sensory systems. However, surprisingly little is known about how adaptation changes olfactory representations and affects perception. Here we review the current understanding of how adaptation impacts processing in the first two stages of the vertebrate olfactory system, olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs), and mitral/tufted cells.