Neuroinformatic Analysis of Olfactory Coding

描述（由申请人提供）：我们的目标是使用神经信息学来帮助解决两种嗅觉编码模型所产生的相互矛盾的发现。一种模型认为，非常多的低特异性神经反应代表了每种气味，另一种模型认为，更少、更特异性的嗅觉受体与特定的分子特征结合，这些特定反应的组合表征了每种气味。由于支持低特异性模型的许多数据是在没有考虑嗅觉系统的精细空间异质性的情况下收集的，因此如果将各个实验室收集的不同类型的数据彼此放入空间寄存器中，则可能解决结论的差异。为此，我们一直在建立一个由各种气味引起的肾小球反应空间模式的档案，并且我们已经能够通过计算肾小球层反应模式的同源性来测试有关嗅觉编码策略的假设。为了方便我们的分析工作，并使其他人能够将他们的数据放入这个气味反应档案中，我们建议继续开发嗅球数据的分析和可视化软件。我们还建议将这种方法扩展到嗅觉上皮和嗅觉皮层，以便能够理解嗅觉系统的初始编码和合成水平。这些努力将通过我们的嗅觉活动档案发布的网站免费提供。我们建议通过整合元数据，以及使用其他物种和其他类型数据的实验室数据来改进站点，例如可以定位在空间中的病变和神经生理学数据。最后，我们必须测试各种各样的气味来捕捉系统的感觉，这也将需要使用信息学方法，使我们能够测试关于系统中化学结构所代表的复杂方法的假设。这些方法的结合应该有助于解决嗅觉编码的冲突模型之间的差异。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our goal is to use neuroinformatics to help resolve the conflicting findings from which two models of olfactory coding have emerged. One model proposes that very many low-specificity neural responses represent each odorant and the other model suggests that fewer, more specific olfactory receptors bind to particular molecular features and that the combination of these specific responses characterizes each odorant. Since much of the data supporting the low-specificity model has been collected without regard for the exquisite spatial heterogeneity of the olfactory system, it is possible that the differences in conclusions could be resolved if the distinct types of data that are collected by various laboratories were placed into spatial register with one another. To that end, we have been building an archive of the spatial patterns of glomerular responses evoked by a wide range of odorants, and we have been able to test hypotheses regarding strategies of olfactory coding by calculating homologies across glomerular-layer response patterns. To facilitate our analytical task, and to make it feasible for others to place their data in register with this odorant response archive, we propose to continue to develop analytical and visualization software for olfactory bulb data. We also propose to extend this approach to both the olfactory epithelium and olfactory cortex to be able to understand both the initial coding and synthetic levels of the olfactory system. These efforts will be freely available via the web site on which our olfactory activity archive is posted. We propose to improve the site by incorporating meta-data, as well as data from labs using other species and other types of data, such as lesions and neurophysiological data that can be located in space. Finally, the wide range of odorants that we must test to capture a sense of the system also will necessitate the use of an informatics approach to allow us to test hypotheses regarding the complex means by which chemical structure is represented in the system. The combination of these approaches should help resolve the differences between the conflicting models of olfactory coding.