Electrophysiological evidence for a topographical projection of the nasal mucosa onto the olfactory bulb of the frog

Three olfactory nerve branches respectively subserving either a medial, an intermediate, or a lateral region of the dorsal olfactory receptor sheet of the bullfrog Rana catesbeiana were electrically stimulated with bipolar platinum hook electrodes. Extracellular single unit responses from 93 second-order cells in different regions of the olfactory bulb were recorded with metal-filled glass micropipets. The excitatory responsiveness of each unit to the stimulation of each of the three nerve branches (response profile) was determined. Some units were sensitive to stimulation of each of the three nerve branches, thus suggesting a wide projection from the entire receptor sheet. On the other hand, other units were more selective. Of this latter group, units in the lateral bulb were excited by nerve branches subserving the more lateral regions of the receptor sheet; units in the medial bulb were excited by the nerve branches subserving the more medial regions of the receptor sheet. These data provide electrophysiological evidence for a topographical projection of the olfactory receptor sheet onto the olfactory bulb, and further suggest that the projections onto different bulbar cells vary in degree of localization.