Glomeruli as Functional Units for Coding in Olfaction

肾小球作为嗅觉编码的功能单位

• 批准号: 9222765
• 负责人: Barry Ache
• 金额: $ 27.97万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1993
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1993-04-15 至 1997-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9222765&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Glomeruli; Functional; Units; Coding; Olfaction

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.

嗅觉的解剖学组织包括嗅觉初级感受器细胞的投射，以连接中枢神经系统内特定细胞的突触。突触形成特殊的球状结构，称为肾小球，由来自传入神经细胞和中枢神经细胞的神经末梢或神经束组成。这一肾小球组织的基本计划在蜗牛、昆虫、鱼类、啮齿动物和人类等各种动物中都保存着，这表明它在识别和区分由多种嗅觉感受器检测到的各种气味方面可能是重要的。这项工作在无脊椎动物模型系统中使用电生理学、药理学和免疫细胞化学技术的多学科方法来确定肾小球内和肾小球之间的区域化处理如何塑造肾小球的气味敏感性。这个嗅觉区的基本组织计划表明，结果将对我们全面理解鲜为人知的化学感觉编码机制以及中枢神经系统结构与感觉加工功能的关系具有重要意义。