NEURAL CODING OF STIMULUS QUALITY IN OLFACTION

该项目解决了嗅觉系统编码的神经机制。 刺激质量。这将通过检查关系来实现 神经反应维度和感觉体验维度之间的关系 对于一组定义的气味，使用开发的分析技术来 研究味觉质量编码，但从未将其应用于嗅觉。这个 Project使用了一个模型，即多刺龙虾，它利用了这样一个事实 有机体具有发达的肾小球型嗅觉系统， 这种生物体的神经活动和摄食行为是由 简单、易于识别和量化的有机分子的混合物。 其中一个目的是分析这种动物如何在行为上对气味进行分类 分子，使用厌恶的条件反射程序。此信息是 重要的是，尽管许多最有效的、行为上的 这种动物的相关气味已经确定，目前尚不清楚 是什么构成了这种动物的单一气味品质(即 气味被认为闻起来相似)。然后，为了描绘出 神经编码这些气味特性，电生理学方法学将 用来研究单个嗅觉中间神经元的反应特性 在大脑的一个主要的嗅觉处理中心。这些中间神经元 是嗅觉通路中的三级神经元。响应和编码 神经元在这一水平上的机制可以与以前的 描述了嗅觉前两个水平的神经元的反应 路径。这将有助于确定是否存在相似之处 气味引起的所有细胞在给定时间内的神经活动模式 神经水平(即跨神经元模式)可以解释 感知到的气味，并评估命运和功能 具有窄调谐反应的受体细胞和低阶中间神经元 光谱。此外，其形态和生理特性 单个中间神经元将被关联，以确定结构 这个嗅觉系统的功能组织的基础。

The project addresses neural mechanisms whereby olfactory systems code stimulus quality. This will be accomplished by examining the relationship between dimensions of neural response and dimensions of sensory experience for a set of defined odorants, employing analytical techniques developed to study gustatory quality coding but never before applied to olfaction. The project uses a model, the spiny lobster, exploiting the fact that this organism has a well-developed, glomerular-type olfactory system and that neural activity and feeding behavior in this organism are elicited by mixtures of simple, easily identified and quantified organic molecules. One aim is to analyze how this animal behaviorally classifies odorant molecules, using aversive conditioning procedures. This information is important because, even though many of the most effective, behaviorally relevant odorants for this animal have been identified, it is not known what constitutes a single odor quality for this animal (i.e., which odorants are perceived as smelling similar). Then, toward delineating the neural code for these odor qualities, electrophysiological methodology will be used to study the response properties of single olfactory interneurons in a major olfactory processing center of the brain. These interneurons are third-order neurons in the olfactory pathway. The responses and coding mechanisms of neurons at this level can then be compared to previously described responses of neurons at the first two levels of the olfactory pathway. This will serve to determine whether similarities in the odorant-elicited patterns of neural activity across all cells at a given neural level (i.e., across-neuron patterns) can account for similarities in the perceived smells of the odorants, and to evaluate the fate and function of receptor cells and low-order interneurons with narrowly-tuned response spectra. Additionally, morphological and physiological properties of single interneurons will be correlated in order to determine the structural basis for the functional organization of this olfactory system.