Comparative Studies of Somatosensory Systems and Active Sensing

Catania, Kenneth C.; Catania, Elizabeth H.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-2975-7_2

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Horton and Adams (2005) showed for example that the cortical column is an inconstant presence in visual cortex. Moreover, whiskers are not universally present in eutherian (placental) mammals (Catania and Catania, 2015); ancestral state reconstruction suggests that they evolved independently as many as seven times among eutherians (Muchlinski et al, 2020). In contrast, glomeruli are present in virtually all olfactory pathways from nematodes to humans, indicating that they provide a universal function for processing high-dimensional odors (Chen and Shepherd, 2005).…”

Section: Glomerular Level Glomerulimentioning

confidence: 99%

An Evolutionary Microcircuit Approach to the Neural Basis of High Dimensional Sensory Processing in Olfaction

Shepherd

Rowe

Greer

2021

Front. Cell. Neurosci.

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Odor stimuli consist of thousands of possible molecules, each molecule with many different properties, each property a dimension of the stimulus. Processing these high dimensional stimuli would appear to require many stages in the brain to reach odor perception, yet, in mammals, after the sensory receptors this is accomplished through only two regions, the olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex. We take a first step toward a fundamental understanding by identifying the sequence of local operations carried out by microcircuits in the pathway. Parallel research provided strong evidence that processed odor information is spatial representations of odor molecules that constitute odor images in the olfactory bulb and odor objects in olfactory cortex. Paleontology provides a unique advantage with evolutionary insights providing evidence that the basic architecture of the olfactory pathway almost from the start ∼330 million years ago (mya) has included an overwhelming input from olfactory sensory neurons combined with a large olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex to process that input, driven by olfactory receptor gene duplications. We identify a sequence of over 20 microcircuits that are involved, and expand on results of research on several microcircuits that give the best insights thus far into the nature of the high dimensional processing.

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Section: Glomerular Level Glomerulimentioning

confidence: 99%

An Evolutionary Microcircuit Approach to the Neural Basis of High Dimensional Sensory Processing in Olfaction

Shepherd

Rowe

Greer

2021

Front. Cell. Neurosci.

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“…In other systems, regions of high receptor density are typically associated with high spatial resolution. It is the case of the foveal region of the retina and of high receptor density regions of the somatosensory system like the fingers or lips in humans (Catania and Catania, 2015;Dacey, 1994;Nakamura et al, 1998). In other systems faced with spatially diffuse signals, like the auditory or olfactory systems, the extraction of spatial information typically relies on the comparisons between a limited number of input (e.g., 2 ears) and high convergence of receptors is more tightly involved with the accurate detection, rather that localization, of the signals (Carr and MacLeod, 2010;Chapman, 1982;Okada and Toh, 2006;Schnupp and Carr, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection and localization of conspecifics in ghost knifefish are influenced by the relationship between the spatial organization of receptors and signals

Ramachandra,

Milam,

Pedraja

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The detection and localization of signals relies on arrays of receptors and their spatial organization plays a key role in setting the accuracy of the system. Electrosensory signals in weakly electric ghost knifefish are captured by an array of receptors covering their body. While we know that spatial resolution for small objects, such as prey, is enhanced near the head due to a high receptor density, it is not clear how receptor organization influences the processing of global and diffuse signals from conspecifics. We investigated the detection and localization accuracy for conspecific signals and determined how they are influenced by the organization of receptors. To do so we modeled the signal, its spatial pattern as it reaches the sensory array, and the responses of the heterogeneous population of receptors. Our analysis provides a conservative estimate of the accuracy of detection and localization (specifically azimuth discrimination) of a conspecific signal. We show that beyond 20 cm the conspecific signal is less than a few percent the strength of the baseline self-generated signal. As a result, detection and localization accuracy decreases quickly for more distant sources. Detection accuracy at distances above 40 cm decreases rapidly and detection at the edge of behaviorally observed ranges might require attending to the signal for several seconds. Angular resolution starts to decrease at even shorter distances (30 cm) and distant signals might require behavioral or neural coding mechanisms that have not been considered here. Most importantly, we show that the higher density of receptors rostrally enhances detection accuracy for signal sources in front of the fish, but contributes little to the localization accuracy of these conspecific signals. We discuss parallels with other sensory systems and suggest that our results highlight a general principle. High receptor convergence in systems with spatially diffuse signals contributes to detection capacities, whereas in systems with spatially delineated signals, receptor density is associated with better spatial resolution.

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Evolution of the Mammalian Neurosensory System: Fossil Evidence and Major Events

Rowe

2022

Paleoneurology of Amniotes

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Comparative Studies of Somatosensory Systems and Active Sensing

Cited by 3 publications

References 58 publications

An Evolutionary Microcircuit Approach to the Neural Basis of High Dimensional Sensory Processing in Olfaction

An Evolutionary Microcircuit Approach to the Neural Basis of High Dimensional Sensory Processing in Olfaction

Detection and localization of conspecifics in ghost knifefish are influenced by the relationship between the spatial organization of receptors and signals

Evolution of the Mammalian Neurosensory System: Fossil Evidence and Major Events

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