Project description
Synchronising the sense of smell
Unlike the retina in vision, which forms a topographical map of the visual field, the sense of smell is non-topographical. Recent discoveries in the olfactory bulb reveal microcircuits that connect distant receptor columns, allowing flexible and energy-efficient odour representation. The ERC-funded COLUMNET project aims to study the synchronisation of co-active receptor channel columns in the gamma frequency range, which is vital for odour perception in the olfactory cortex. Using a semi-intact nose-brain preparation and advanced 3D two-photon imaging, it will explore interactions among neuronal ensembles within columnar channels. It will also examine whether blood vessel pulsations enhance columnar activity in response to odour stimulation. The findings are expected to significantly improve our understanding of olfactory perception.
Objective
How is the percept of a smell generated from the fractionated representation of odours at the periphery where olfactory receptor channels detect structural elements of odour molecules? While this problem seems akin to the detection of a “Gestalt”/object by the visual system using its contours, there is a fundamental difference between olfaction and vision due to the discontinuous, non-topographical nature of odour representation.
Recently my group has discovered intriguing subcellular mechanisms of the neuronal microcircuits prevalent in the olfactory bulb that may enable flexible and energy-efficient non-topographical odour representation. These microcircuits connect distant olfactory receptor channel columns with each other and operate in a previously unknown activity-dependent manner. Here we aim to translate these findings from the synaptic to the systemic level, and test our hypotheses regarding the synchronization mechanism of co-active receptor channel columns in the gamma regime which will then allow the combinatorial synthesis of the odour percept in the olfactory cortex.
By combining olfactory stimulation of our semi-intact nose-brain preparation with state-of-the-art imaging techniques with unprecedented large-scale spatio-temporal resolution (3D two-photon imaging of voltage-sensitive dyes), we will study the interaction between the neuronal ensembles belonging to columnar channels. This system-level understanding will be complemented by in-depth investigation of activity-dependent output of individual synapses in acute brain slices. Next, we will test whether columnar activity upon odour stimulation is amplified by a local mechanism recently discovered by our lab that links blood vessel pulsations to oscillatory neural activity. Finally, we will integrate our results into a realistic computational network model of the olfactory bulb.
COLUMNET will significantly advance our understanding of olfactory perception.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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93053 Regensburg
Germany
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