Abstract
Olfaction plays an important role in the evaluation, motivation, and palatability of food. The chemical identity of odorants is coded by a spatial combination of activated glomeruli in the olfactory bulb, which is referred to as the odor map. However, the functional roles of the olfactory cortex, a collective region that receives axonal projections from the olfactory bulb, and higher olfactory centers in odor-guided eating behaviors are yet to be elucidated. The olfactory tubercle (OT) is a component of the ventral striatum and forms a node within the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway. Recent studies have revealed the anatomical domain structures of the OT and their functions in distinct odor-guided motivated behaviors. Another component of the ventral striatum, the nucleus accumbens, is well known for its involvement in motivation and hedonic responses for foods, which raises the possibility of functional similarities between the OT and nucleus accumbens in eating. This review first summarizes recent findings on the domain- and neuronal subtype-specific roles of the OT in odor-guided motivated behaviors and then proposes a model for the regulation of eating behaviors by the OT.
Highlights
The smell of food stimulates appetite, especially during states of hunger
Olfaction is involved in the evaluation, appetite, and palatability of food before and during eating (Lawless, 1991; Shepherd, 2013)
When mice exhibited aversive behaviors to a cue odor paired with an electrical foot shock, c-fos expression was increased in D1 receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons and dwarf cells in the lateral domain and D2 receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons in the anteromedial domain. These findings suggest that the spatial pattern of neural activation in the olfactory tubercle (OT) encodes odor-induced attractive or aversive behaviors, in contrast to the odor map of the olfactory bulb
Summary
The smell of food stimulates appetite, especially during states of hunger. the smell of rotten foods incites a sense of discomfort and promotes arousal. When mice exhibited attractive behaviors to a cue odor paired with the presence of sugar, c-fos expression increased in D1 receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons in the anteromedial domain.
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