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Profound Context-Dependent Plasticity of Mitral Cell Responses in Olfactory Bulb

On the basis of its primary circuit it has been postulated that the olfactory bulb (OB) is analogous to the retina in mammals. In retina, repeated exposure to the same visual stimulus results in a neural representation that remains relatively stable over time, even as the meaning of that stimulus to...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Doucette, Wilder, Restrepo, Diego
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2573932/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18959481
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0060258
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author Doucette, Wilder
Restrepo, Diego
author_facet Doucette, Wilder
Restrepo, Diego
author_sort Doucette, Wilder
collection PubMed
description On the basis of its primary circuit it has been postulated that the olfactory bulb (OB) is analogous to the retina in mammals. In retina, repeated exposure to the same visual stimulus results in a neural representation that remains relatively stable over time, even as the meaning of that stimulus to the animal changes. Stability of stimulus representation at early stages of processing allows for unbiased interpretation of incoming stimuli by higher order cortical centers. The alternative is that early stimulus representation is shaped by previously derived meaning, which could allow more efficient sampling of odor space providing a simplified yet biased interpretation of incoming stimuli. This study helps place the olfactory system on this continuum of subjective versus objective early sensory representation. Here we show that odor responses of the output cells of the OB, mitral cells, change transiently during a go–no-go odor discrimination task. The response changes occur in a manner that increases the ability of the circuit to convey information necessary to discriminate among closely related odors. Remarkably, a switch between which of the two odors is rewarded causes mitral cells to switch the polarity of their divergent responses. Taken together these results redefine the function of the OB as a transiently modifiable (active) filter, shaping early odor representations in behaviorally meaningful ways.
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spelling pubmed-25739322008-10-28 Profound Context-Dependent Plasticity of Mitral Cell Responses in Olfactory Bulb Doucette, Wilder Restrepo, Diego PLoS Biol Research Article On the basis of its primary circuit it has been postulated that the olfactory bulb (OB) is analogous to the retina in mammals. In retina, repeated exposure to the same visual stimulus results in a neural representation that remains relatively stable over time, even as the meaning of that stimulus to the animal changes. Stability of stimulus representation at early stages of processing allows for unbiased interpretation of incoming stimuli by higher order cortical centers. The alternative is that early stimulus representation is shaped by previously derived meaning, which could allow more efficient sampling of odor space providing a simplified yet biased interpretation of incoming stimuli. This study helps place the olfactory system on this continuum of subjective versus objective early sensory representation. Here we show that odor responses of the output cells of the OB, mitral cells, change transiently during a go–no-go odor discrimination task. The response changes occur in a manner that increases the ability of the circuit to convey information necessary to discriminate among closely related odors. Remarkably, a switch between which of the two odors is rewarded causes mitral cells to switch the polarity of their divergent responses. Taken together these results redefine the function of the OB as a transiently modifiable (active) filter, shaping early odor representations in behaviorally meaningful ways. Public Library of Science 2008-10 2008-10-28 /pmc/articles/PMC2573932/ /pubmed/18959481 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0060258 Text en © 2008 Doucette and Restrepo. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Doucette, Wilder
Restrepo, Diego
Profound Context-Dependent Plasticity of Mitral Cell Responses in Olfactory Bulb
title Profound Context-Dependent Plasticity of Mitral Cell Responses in Olfactory Bulb
title_full Profound Context-Dependent Plasticity of Mitral Cell Responses in Olfactory Bulb
title_fullStr Profound Context-Dependent Plasticity of Mitral Cell Responses in Olfactory Bulb
title_full_unstemmed Profound Context-Dependent Plasticity of Mitral Cell Responses in Olfactory Bulb
title_short Profound Context-Dependent Plasticity of Mitral Cell Responses in Olfactory Bulb
title_sort profound context-dependent plasticity of mitral cell responses in olfactory bulb
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2573932/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18959481
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0060258
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