Abstract
A central question in neuroscience is how context changes perception. In the olfactory system, for example, experiments show that task demands can drive divergence and convergence of cortical odor responses, likely underpinning olfactory discrimination and generalization. Here, we propose a simple statistical mechanism for this effect based on unstructured feedback from the central brain to the olfactory bulb, which represents the context associated with an odor, and sufficiently selective cortical gating of sensory inputs. Strikingly, the model predicts that both convergence and divergence of cortical odor patterns should increase when odors are initially more similar, an effect reported in recent experiments. The theory in turn predicts reversals of these trends following experimental manipulations and in neurological conditions that increase cortical excitability.
Highlights
Contextual information, which we define as the environmental information salient to a sensory experience, has a powerful effect on perception across a range of sensory modalities [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
The sensory (OB) layer consists of N “modules”, where each module represents the set of mitral cells (MCs) in the olfactory bulb (OB) that project to the same pyramidal neuron in the cortical (PC) layer
The cortical (PC) layer consists of N units as well, with each unit representing a pyramidal neuron receiving direct inputs from its corresponding module in the sensory layer
Summary
Contextual information, which we define as the environmental information salient to a sensory experience, has a powerful effect on perception across a range of sensory modalities [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Contextual feedback to the olfactory bulb and odor representation simonsfoundation.org/) through MMLS grant 400425. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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