RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Functional Relevance of Dual Olfactory Bulbs in Olfactory Coding
JF eneuro
JO eNeuro
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP ENEURO.0070-21.2021
DO 10.1523/ENEURO.0070-21.2021
VO 8
IS 5
A1 Kuruppath, Praveen
A1 Bai, Li
A1 Belluscio, Leonardo
YR 2021
UL http://www.eneuro.org/content/8/5/ENEURO.0070-21.2021.abstract
AB Bilateral convergence of external stimuli is a common feature of vertebrate sensory systems. This convergence of inputs from the bilateral receptive fields allows higher order sensory perception, such as depth perception in the vertebrate visual system and stimulus localization in the auditory system. The functional role of such bilateral convergence in the olfactory system is unknown. To test whether each olfactory bulb (OB) contributes a separate piece of olfactory information, and whether information from the bilateral OB is integrated, we synchronized the activation of OBs with blue light in mice expressing ChIEF in the olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and behaviorally assessed the relevance of dual OBs in olfactory perception. Our findings suggest that each OB contributes separate components of olfactory information, and the mice integrate the bilaterally synchronized olfactory information for olfactory identity.