Encoding of Slowly Fluctuating Concentration Changes by Cockroach Olfactory Receptor Neurons Is Invariant to Air Flow Velocity

Hellwig, Maria; Martzok, Alexander; Tichy, Harald

doi:10.3389/fphys.2019.00943

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Thus, pulse concentration could be used by Drosophila to track along wind-borne odor plumes to their source. In a recent study we have shown that changing the level of the flow rate has no effect on the responses of the ON and OFF ORN responses to oscillating changes in odor concentration ( Hellwig et al, 2019 ). Furthermore, the gain of both ORNs for the concentration rate is robust against the air flow velocity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gain control in olfactory receptor neurons and the detection of temporal fluctuations in odor concentration

Tichy

Hellwig

2023

Front. Physiol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The ability of the cockroach to locate an odor source in still air suggests that the temporal dynamic of odor concentration in the slowly expanding stationary plume alone is used to infer odor source distance and location. This contradicts with the well-established view that insects use the wind direction as the principle directional cue. This contribution highlights the evidence for, and likely functional relevance of, the capacity of the cockroach’s olfactory receptor neurons to detect and process—from one moment to the next—not only a succession of odor concentrations but also the rates at which concentration changes. This presents a challenge for the olfactory system because it must detect and encode the temporal concentration dynamic in a manner that simultaneously allows invariant odor recognition. The challenge is met by a parallel representation of odor identity and concentration changes in a dual pathway that starts from olfactory receptor neurons located in two morphologically distinct types of olfactory sensilla. Parallel processing uses two types of gain control that simultaneously allocate different weight to the instantaneous odor concentration and its rate of change. Robust gain control provides a stable sensitivity for the instantaneous concentration by filtering the information on fluctuations in the rate of change. Variable gain control, in turn, enhances sensitivity for the concentration rate according to variations in the duration of the fluctuation period. This efficiently represents the fluctuation of concentration changes in the environmental context in which such changes occur.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gain control in olfactory receptor neurons and the detection of temporal fluctuations in odor concentration

Tichy

Hellwig

2023

Front. Physiol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Interestingly, they are functionally organized in pairs. These OSN pairs respond antagonistically even to slow concentration changes of odorants and are referred to as ON and OFF OSNs (Schaller 1978 ; Hinterwirth et al 2004 ; Tichy et al 2005 ; Burgstaller and Tichy 2011 ; Hellwig et al 2019 ).…”

Section: Functional Organization Of the Antennae: Sensilla And Olfactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Odor processing in the cockroach antennal lobe—the network components

Fusca

Kloppenburg

2021

Cell Tissue Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Highly interconnected neural networks perform olfactory signal processing in the central nervous system. In insects, the first synaptic processing of the olfactory input from the antennae occurs in the antennal lobe, the functional equivalent of the olfactory bulb in vertebrates. Key components of the olfactory network in the antennal lobe are two main types of neurons: the local interneurons and the projection (output) neurons. Both neuron types have different physiological tasks during olfactory processing, which accordingly require specialized functional phenotypes. This review gives an overview of important cell type-specific functional properties of the different types of projection neurons and local interneurons in the antennal lobe of the cockroach Periplaneta americana, which is an experimental system that has elucidated many important biophysical and cellular bases of intrinsic physiological properties of these neurons.

show abstract

“…In a recent investigation we have shown that the response gain of the ORNs of the trichoid sensilla is unaffected by changing the velocity of the odor-delivering air stream. The ORNs respond reproducibly to slow changes in the air stream concentration, even when the absolute number of molecules that encounter the sensillum per unit time is varied, or the air volume involved in the concentration change, or the rate of arrival of the odor molecules at the antenna, or the rate of the air flow (Hellwig et al, 2019). The finding that ORNs detect concentration changes independently of the air speed make them ideal "concentration rate detectors" by a temporalplume-tracking cockroach.…”

Section: Constraints Imposed By the Rate Of Concentration Changementioning

confidence: 99%

The Performance of Olfactory Receptor Neurons: The Rate of Concentration Change Indicates Functional Specializations in the Cockroach Peripheral Olfactory System

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Slow and continuous changes in odor concentration were used as a possible easy method for measuring the effect of the instantaneous concentration and the rate of concentration change on the activity of the olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) of basiconic sensilla on the cockroach antennae. During oscillating concentration changes, impulse frequency increased with rising instantaneous concentration and this increase was stronger the faster concentration rose through the higher concentration values. The effect of the concentration rate on the ORNs responses to the instantaneous concentration was invariant to the duration of the oscillation period: shallow concentration waves provided by long periods elicited the same response to the instantaneous concentration as steep concentration waves at brief periods. Thus, the double dependence remained unchanged when the range of concentration rates varied. This distinguishes the ORNs of basiconic sensilla from those of trichoid sensilla (Tichy and Hellwig, 2018) which adjust their gain of response according to the duration of the oscillating period. The precision of the ORNs to discriminate increments of slowly rising odor concentration was studied by applying gradual ramp-like concentration changes at different rates. While the ORNs of the trichoid sensilla perform better the slower the concentration rate, those of the basiconic sensilla show no preference for a specific rate of concentration increase. This suggests that the two types of sensilla have different functions. The ORNs of the trichoid sensilla may predominately analyze temporal features of the odor signal and the ORNs of the basiconic sensilla may be involved in extracting information on the identity of the odor source instead of mediating the spatial-temporal concentration pattern in an odor plume.

show abstract

Encoding of Slowly Fluctuating Concentration Changes by Cockroach Olfactory Receptor Neurons Is Invariant to Air Flow Velocity

Cited by 5 publications

References 28 publications

Gain control in olfactory receptor neurons and the detection of temporal fluctuations in odor concentration

Gain control in olfactory receptor neurons and the detection of temporal fluctuations in odor concentration

Odor processing in the cockroach antennal lobe—the network components

The Performance of Olfactory Receptor Neurons: The Rate of Concentration Change Indicates Functional Specializations in the Cockroach Peripheral Olfactory System

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About