Event Abstract Back to Event Symmetry and Laterality - Stereo odor localization in rats Parthasarathy Kalyanasundaram1 and Upinder S. Bhalla1* 1 National Centre for Biological Sciences, Department of Neurobiology, India Rodents primarily depend on odor information to navigate. As air-borne odor molecules drift away from the source they form a non-uniform, fluctuating concentration gradient. To navigate in such a dynamically changing odor environment, the animal needs to extract instantaneous information about the spatial aspects of odor gradient. The role of bilateral odor sampling in localizing odor source has been demonstrated in many species. It has also been shown that rats could use inter nostril intensity differences to localize odors ( Rajan et al., 2006). In principle, this bilateral comparison strategy could provide the animal about fast changing odor environment. The key assumptions for bilateral comparison are Symmetry: bilateral equivalence at all levels of the olfactory processing and Laterality: bilateral distinction of the information. Absence of any one of these prerequisites might upset the efficiency of odor localization behavior. In this study we have checked for the extent of these attributes in early olfactory processing in the rat. We first studied the odor localization behavior using precisely controlled odorant stimuli. Water-deprived rats were first trained to locate an odor coming from either right or left at 1% Iso Amylacetate (IAA). Following successful training on this odor localization task (task accuracy >=80%), the rats were tested with a range of bilateral odor gradients, including probe trials where the odor concentration was the same on both sides. Rats rapidly learned to go to water port on the higher concentration side. Their performance dropped to chance level for the equal concentration trials. We then measured the nasal airflow and found that it was symmetric over long periods. We also show that sampling from the two nostrils in the behavioral task was highly lateralized. We finally observed strong lateralization of odor elicited responses from both the receptor epithelium and the glomerular layer of the olfactory bulb. These results are in contrast with earlier findings, as they reported an incompleteness of symmetry and laterality of the olfactory system. Taken together, these results suggest that the olfactory system is symmetric and the bilateral information flow is lateralized. This forms the basis for a simple, single-sniff bilateral comparison mechanism for determining odorant direction. Acknowledgements This project was supported by a grant from the Department of Biotechnology, India. References Rajan R, Clement JP, Bhalla US (2006) Rats smell in stereo. Science 311:666–670. Keywords: Behavior, Bilateral comparison, odor, Odor lcoalization, Olfaction, Olfactory coding, rat, Smell Conference: Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012. Presentation Type: Poster (but consider for student poster award) Topic: Sensory: Olfaction and Taste Citation: Kalyanasundaram P and Bhalla US (2012). Symmetry and Laterality - Stereo odor localization in rats. Conference Abstract: Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00118 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Apr 2012; Published Online: 07 Jul 2012. * Correspondence: Dr. Upinder S Bhalla, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Department of Neurobiology, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560065, India, bhalla@ncbs.res.in Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Parthasarathy Kalyanasundaram Upinder S Bhalla Google Parthasarathy Kalyanasundaram Upinder S Bhalla Google Scholar Parthasarathy Kalyanasundaram Upinder S Bhalla PubMed Parthasarathy Kalyanasundaram Upinder S Bhalla Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.