How Olfactory Information is Transformed from Bulb to Cortex

项目2：嗅觉信息如何从球到皮层转化 理解感觉如何转化为感知是神经科学的核心挑战。感官 信息是由与外部世界相互作用的受体检测到的。然后，这些信息通过 多个阶段的处理，到皮层感觉区，在那里感知首先出现。在这个项目中， 啮齿动物嗅觉系统的相对“浅”组织的优势，以确定气味如何信息- 信息直接从嗅球转化为梨状皮质;本质上，检查 将嗅球内嗅觉输入的感觉表征转换为嗅球内嗅觉感受器的皮层表征 一个单一的处理阶段。为此，我们将联合收割机与弗兰克斯实验室（杜克大学）的技术专长相结合， 在记录和分析大量梨状神经元的活动方面， 实验室（纽约大学）在嗅球肾小球的模式光遗传学激活。结合我们的努力 为我们提供了独特的机会，直接激活嗅球的定义区域（即输入），同时记录 来自梨状皮质中的神经元群体（即输出）。这为直接和 系统地确定嗅觉信息是如何从基本感觉表征转化为 在大脑皮层形成一个整体的知觉表征。然后，我们将使用各种分子遗传工具， 选择性地破坏这个电路的特定组件，这将揭示每个细胞的不同细胞操作， 组件在实现此转换中发挥的作用。因此，该项目将提供深入的机械洞察力 大脑如何将嗅觉信息转化为皮层气味感知。因此，我们有信心 我们将揭示嗅觉信息从嗅球到皮层的转换逻辑。 并且球状体到梨状体转化的实施也可能在多个其他地点被实例化 在整个大脑中，并且通常在深深嵌入大脑的部位，例如海马体， 其中对输入和输出的访问更具挑战性，因此在这些更深处执行的操作 区域更难解释。因此，我们乐观地认为，在探测我们的嗅觉时所学到的经验教训 电路将产生可推广的原则，也将适用于其他多个类似的组织系统。

Summary (Project 2: How olfactory information is transformed from bulb to cortex) Understanding how sensation is transformed into perception is a central challenge for neuroscience. Sensory information is detected by receptors that interact with the external world. This information is then routed, through multiple stages of processing, to cortical sensory areas, where perception first emerges. In this project we take advantage of the relatively “shallow” organization of the rodent olfactory system to determine how odor infor- mation is directly transformed from olfactory bulb to piriform cortex; essentially, examining the transformation of sensory representations of the olfactory input in the bulb to cortical representations of the olfactory percept within a single stage of processing. To do this, we will combine the technical expertise of the Franks Lab (Duke Uni- versity) at recording and analyzing activity of large populations of piriform neurons, with the expertise of Rinberg Lab (New York University) at patterned optogenetic activation of olfactory bulb glomeruli. Combining our efforts provides us the unique opportunity to directly activate defined areas of olfactory bulb (i.e. Input) while recording from populations of neurons in piriform cortex (i.e. Output). This provides a unique opportunity to directly and systematically determine how olfactory information is transformed from an elemental sensory representation in bulb into a holistic perceptual representation in cortex. We will then use a variety of molecular genetic tools to selectively disrupt specific components of this circuit, which will reveal the distinct cellular operations that each component plays in implementing this transformation. This project will therefore provide deep mechanistic insight into how the brain transforms olfactory sensory information into cortical odor percepts. Thus, we are confident that we will reveal the logic of the transformation of olfactory information from bulb to cortex However, the logic and implementation of the bulb-to-piriform transformation is also likely to be instantiated at multiple other sites throughout the brain, and often at sites that are deeply embedded within the brain, such as the hippocampus, where access to both the Input and Output are more challenging, and so operations performed at these deeper areas are more difficult to interpret. We are therefore optimistic that lessons learned while probing our olfactory circuit will generate generalizable principles that will also apply to multiple other, similarly organized systems.