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Comment
. 2016 Jun 23:5:e18037.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.18037.

Minority odors get equal say

Priyanka Gupta  1   2 , Upinder S Bhalla  1
Affiliations
Comment

Minority odors get equal say

Priyanka Gupta et al. Elife. .

Abstract

The olfactory system becomes more sensitive when odor inputs are weak, and less sensitive when confronted with strong odors.

Keywords: excitation/inhibition balance; mouse; neuroscience; olfaction; olfactory bulb; signal normalization.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. The olfactory response in M71 transgenic mice.
M71 transgenic mice are genetically modified to over-express the M71 receptor (shown in purple) in olfactory receptor neurons (top). However, mice can still detect other ‘minority’ odors because the neurons in the olfactory bulb (which receive signals from the olfactory receptor neurons) become less sensitive to signals from the dominant M71 receptors, and more sensitive to signals from other receptors (shown here in yellow, green, black and blue). The heights of the sliders in the ovals represent the level of gain in that circuit: high gain leads to high sensitivity. This ultimately enables each odor to produce an equal-sized output from the olfactory bulb (represented by the width of the arrows at the bottom of the figure).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

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