Mitral and tufted cells in the mammalian olfactory bulb are principal neurons, each type having distinct projection pattern of their dendrites and axons. The morphological difference suggests that mitral and tufted cells are functionally distinct and may process different aspects of olfactory information. To examine this possibility, we recorded odorant-evoked spike responses from mitral and mi...

Retronasal (retro) and/or oral-cavity-only (OeD) smelling of vapor-phase agonists for the trigeminal chemoreceptive ion channel TRPM8 was studied. In a retro and OeD identification experiment. 1 of 6 previously practiced identifications (ID) was selected on a computer display under forced-choice conditions. Analyses of variance (ANOV A) found differences across odorants and retro and OeD. and f...

The overlap hypothesis of mixture perception is based on the observation that mixtures of perceptually similar odorants tend to smell different from their components (configural), whereas mixtures of dissimilar odorants smell like their components (elemental). Because input patterns of perceptually similar odorants tend to overlap more than dissimilar ones, it has been hypothesized that compone...

We measured frequency response functions between concentrations of fruit odorants and individual action potentials in large basiconic sensilla of the Drosophila melanogaster antenna. A new method of randomly varying odorant concentration was combined with rapid, continuous measurement of concentration at the antenna by a miniature photoionization detector. All frequency responses decreased prog...

Forced-choice discrimination is a standard behavioral paradigm used to test animals' abilities in learning and memory. In this type of task, a reward association is made between a sensory stimulus and a food or water reward and the frequency of correct choice for the stimulus associated with the reward is measured. We show here that when olfactory sensory stimuli are used, spontaneous preferenc...

The mammalian olfactory system recognizes an enormous variety of odorants carrying a wide range of important behavioral cues. In the main olfactory bulb (MOB), odorants are ultimately represented through the action potential activity of mitral/tufted cells (M/Ts), whose selectivity and tuning to odorant molecules are therefore fundamental determinants of MOB sensory coding. However, the sheer n...

background university of pennsylvania smell identification test (upsit) is one of the most common smell identification tests to assess olfactory function. objectives the study was conducted to assess the accuracy of university of pennsylvania smell identification test (upsit) in iranian population. materials and methods university of pennsylvania smell identification test was performed on 30 (5...

Most forms of suprathreshold sensory stimulation perturb sleep. In contrast, presentation of pure olfactory or mild trigeminal odorants does not lead to behavioral or physiological arousal. In fact, some odors promote objective and subjective measures of sleep quality in humans and rodents. The brain mechanisms underlying these sleep-protective properties of olfaction remain unclear. Slow oscil...

A major challenge in neuroscience is relating neuronal activity to animal behavior. In olfaction limited techniques are available for these correlation studies in freely moving animals. To solve this problem, we developed an olfactory behavioral assay in head-restrained mice where we can monitor behavioral responses with high temporal precision. Mice were trained on a go/no-go operant condition...