Glomeruli as Functional Units for Coding in Olfaction

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The anatomical organization of the sense of smell involves projections from the olfactory primary receptor cells to connect at synapses on particular cells within the central nervous system. The synapses form particular ball-like structures called glomeruli, composed of neuronal terminals, or neuropil, from incoming and central nerve cells. This fundamental plan of glomerular organization has been conserved in animals as diverse as snails, insects, fish, rodents and humans, suggesting it may be important in the recognition and discrimination of various odors detected by the multiple olfactory receptors. This work uses a multidisciplinary approach of electrophysiological, pharmacological and immunocytochemical techniques in an invertebrate model system to determine how regionalized processing within and among glomeruli shapes the odor sensitivity of the glomerulus. The basic organizational plan of this olfactory region suggests that results will be important for our general understanding of the poorly known mechanisms for chemosensory coding, and of the relation of central nervous system structure to function in sensory processing.