A collaborative research team between RIKEN and Kyushu University has revealed that the mechanism of smelling mammals is identified based on the "ignition timing" of nerve cells.
Humans detect odors by about 400 types of olfactory nerve cells present in the nasal cavity.It is still unclear what kind of information processing is performed by the olfactory bulb, which is the primary center of odor information processing, for the information received by the olfactory nerve cells to lead to odor recognition.
For example, the sweet scent of bananas is clearly perceived as a "banana" whether you smell it near or far.The mechanism by which the quality of odor does not change depending on the concentration has been a big mystery.
This time, the collaborative research team focused on "ignition," which is a transient electrical activity of nerve cells, and measured the activity of glomerular cells of the olfactory bulb.It is known that when sensory information is input to the brain, the nerve cells that receive the information change the "ignition frequency" and "ignition timing", but this study dynamically changes the firing frequency. However, on the other hand, it became clear that the ignition timing was extremely stable and that the types of odors could be distinguished more accurately.In other words, it was shown that one of the reasons why the type does not seem to change even if the odor concentration changes is that the ignition timing is stable.
Paper information:[Neuron] Mechanosensory-Based Phase Coding of Odor Identity in the Olfactory Bulb
