Abstract
Neural activity can be mapped across individuals using brain atlases, but when spatial relationships are not equal, these techniques collapse. We map activity across individuals using functional registration, based on physiological responses to predetermined reference stimuli. Data from several individuals are integrated into a common multidimensional stimulus space, where dimensionality and axes are defined by these reference stimuli. We used this technique to discriminate volatile compounds with a cohort of Drosophila flies, by recording odor responses in receptor neurons on the flies’ antennae. We propose this technique for the development of reliable biological sensors when activity raw data cannot be calibrated. In particular, this technique will be useful for evaluating physiological measurements in natural chemosensory systems, and therefore will allow to exploit the sensitivity and selectivity of olfactory receptors present in the animal kingdom for analytical purposes.
Highlights
Sensory systems provide animals with information about the environment with a level of efficiency that, in some cases, largely exceeds that of technological equivalents
We propose a system to use the activity maps themselves to register functional responses across olfactory epithelia in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster
Brains based on geometric and spatial criteria is impossible. This lack of fine-scale registration is present in the periphery, i.e. when we consider the precise location of identifiable olfactory neurons in the epithelium or on the antenna of insects, such as Drosophila melanogaster[9], because neuronal populations are scattered in overlapping areas in these organs
Summary
Sensory systems provide animals with information about the environment with a level of efficiency that, in some cases, largely exceeds that of technological equivalents. Brains based on geometric and spatial criteria is impossible This lack of fine-scale registration is present in the periphery, i.e. when we consider the precise location of identifiable olfactory neurons in the epithelium (in mammals) or on the antenna of insects, such as Drosophila melanogaster[9], because neuronal populations are scattered in overlapping areas in these organs. Olfactory receptors are arranged along the surface of the antenna in a genetically determined way, but the small-scale arrangement of activity patches is different from animal to animal, due to genetic and experimental variability[9] Some of these receptors exhibit a broad response range to odorants, and odours elicit combinatorial activity patterns[10]. We introduce a virtual reference system based on functional responses, rather than spatial locations, in order to quantitatively compare brain activity across individuals
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