Abstract
Stimulus intensity is a fundamental perceptual feature in all sensory systems. In olfaction, perceived odor intensity depends on at least two variables: odor concentration; and duration of the odor exposure or adaptation. To examine how neural activity at early stages of the olfactory system represents features relevant to intensity perception, we studied the responses of mitral/tufted cells (MTCs) while manipulating odor concentration and exposure duration. Temporal profiles of MTC responses to odors changed both as a function of concentration and with adaptation. However, despite the complexity of these responses, adaptation and concentration dependencies behaved similarly. These similarities were visualized by principal component analysis of average population responses and were quantified by discriminant analysis in a trial-by-trial manner. The qualitative functional dependencies of neuronal responses paralleled psychophysics results in humans. We suggest that temporal patterns of MTC responses in the olfactory bulb contribute to an internal perceptual variable: odor intensity.
Highlights
IntroductionOne of the major aims of systems neuroscience is to link neural activity at different stages of information processing
mitral/tufted cells (MTCs) responses change with concentration To quantify response changes as a function of odor concentration, we first grouped responses into 339 unit– odor– concentration sets [concentration–response sets (CRSs)]
We find that MTC odor responses change with decreasing concentration, similar to that with repeated sampling of a constant odor source
Summary
One of the major aims of systems neuroscience is to link neural activity at different stages of information processing. Scientist Program at Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. *Y.B.S. and R.S. contributed to this work. Strong links with perception have been established in the visual and somatosensory
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