Olfactory coding in the perception of semiochemicals

Abstract

Information processing in the olfactory pathway underlying the perception of semiochemicals by insects is discussed. Both the chemical message for mates and the message for food consist of blends of chemicals. Olfactory receptors in an insect species are tuned to the detection of those compounds which comprise such chemical messages for that species. The classification of receptors as specialists or generalists coincides with two concepts of information processing, i.e., labeled lines and across-fiber patterns, respectively. The olfactory code coming from antennal receptors inPieris brassicae larvae is a combination of labeled lines and across-fiber patterning. When antennae of adult Colorado potato beetles,Leptinotarsa decemlineata, are stimulated by binary mixtures of leaf odor components, the pattern of neural activities in the olfactory receptors shows some separation into two channels, quantitative versus qualitative detection. The separation is complete in the antennal lobe of this beetle.