PERIPHERAL AND CENTRAL PROCESSING OF ODORANT MIXTURES

描述(改编自《调查员摘要》)：将军 PI的研究目的是了解嗅觉中的事件 导致气味混合物辨别的加工。在人类身上 和动物，个体气味的感知强度或质量 化合物在混合时会发生变化；这些事件称为混合物 互动。这意味着路径之间存在相互作用 被气味激活，这些相互作用会影响反应 到混合物里。在本提案中，提出的实验将测试 认为混合物的同一性是由外围派生出来的想法 中枢嗅觉系统来自由其激活的一组独特的神经元 混合物，以及这组独特的激活神经元的组成 取决于激活的兴奋和抑制通路的性质 组件以及这些通路之间的相互作用。多刺的 龙虾将被用作这些研究的动物模型，因为它 拥有哺乳动物嗅觉的许多基本设计特征 系统，包括一个球状组织的嗅神经垫，它是一种 对模型系统进行了深入研究。单一嗅觉感受器对混合物的编码 将使用电生理学方法检查神经元和中间神经元 技巧。细胞系综的活性将通过活性进行检测 依赖标签技术。受体分子的结构和 他们的基因将使用生化和分子方法进行探索。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the Investigator's Abstract): The general objective of the PI's research is to understand events in olfactory processing that lead to the discrimination of odorant mixtures. In humans and animals, the perceived intensity or quality of individual odorant compounds is changed when they are mixed; these events are called mixture interactions. this implies that there are interactions between pathways activated by odorants and that these interactions can influence the response to the mixture. In this proposal, experiments are presented that will test the idea that the identity of a mixture is derived by the peripheral and central olfactory system from the unique set of neurons activated by that mixture, and that the composition of the unique set of activated neurons depends on the nature of excitatory and inhibitory pathways activated by the components and on the interactions between these pathways. The spiny lobster will be used as the animal model in these studies, since it possesses many of the basic design features of the mammalian olfactory system, including a glomerularly organized olfactory neuropil, and it is a well studied model system. Coding of mixtures by single olfactory receptor neurons and interneurons will be examined using electrophysiological techniques. Activity of ensembles of cells will be examined with activity dependent labeling techniques. The structure of receptor molecules and their genes will be explored using biochemical and molecular approaches.