A Comparison Between the Human Sense of Smell and Neural Activity in the Olfactory Bulb of Rats
A Comparison Between the Human Sense of Smell and Neural Activity in the Olfactory Bulb of Rats
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DOI：
10.1093/chemse/bjt057
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发表时间：
2014-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Tsuji, Toshio
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Soh, Zu;Saito, Maki;Tsuji, Toshio
一般来说，气味质量是通过感官测试来评估的，其中预定义的标准由小组成员评估并进行随机分析，以减少人为的不一致。由于这种方法需要多个训练有素的人类受试者，因此需要一种更方便的方法来预测气味质量。在本文中，我们提出了一种将嗅觉系统的内部状态与感知特征联系起来的方法。在这项研究中，大鼠的肾小球反应被用来代表内部嗅觉系统状态。通过肾小球活动模式之间的相关性、肾小球活动模式中强激活部分的重叠率以及活动强度直方图之间的相似性来量化大鼠肾小球反应之间的相似性。然后将这些指数与人类受试者在感官测试中测量到的感知相似性进行比较。涉及 22 种气味剂的实验结果显示，每个指标与感知相似性之间具有中等强度的相关性。此外，当使用欧几里得距离组合这 3 个指数时，我们观察到与人类感知相似性的中等到高度相关性 (r 0.650.79)。我们还报告了使用机器学习技术将气味剂分为相似和不相似类别的结果。尽管分类的正确率从 33.3% 到 92.9% 不等，但这些结果支持将大鼠肾小球反应与人类感知联系起来的可行性。
Generally, odor qualities are evaluated via sensory tests in which predefined criteria are assessed by panelists and stochastically analyzed to reduce human inconsistencies. Because this method requires multiple, well-trained human subjects, a more convenient approach is required to enable predictions of odor qualities. In this article, we propose an approach involving linking internal states of the olfactory system with perceptual characteristics. In the study, the glomerular responses of rats were taken to represent internal olfactory system states. Similarities between the glomerular responses of rats were quantified by correlations between glomerular activity patterns, overlap rate of strongly activated part across glomerular activity patterns, and the similarity between histograms of the strength of activity. These indices were then compared with perceptual similarities measured from human subjects in sensory tests. The results of experiments involving 22 odorants showed medium strength correlations between each index and perceptual similarity. In addition, when the 3 indices were combined using their Euclidean distance, we observed middle to high correlations (r 0.650.79) to human perceptual similarity. We also report the results of our use of a machine learning technique to classify the odorants into a similar and dissimilar category. Although the correct rate of classification varied from 33.3% to 92.9%, these results support the feasibility of linking the glomerular responses of rats to human perception.