Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Olfactory perceptual stability and discrimination

Nature Neuroscience volume 11, pages 1378–1380 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

No two roses smell exactly alike, but our brain accurately bundles these variations into a single percept 'rose'. We found that ensembles of rat olfactory bulb neurons decorrelate complex mixtures that vary by as little as a single missing component, whereas olfactory (piriform) cortical neural ensembles perform pattern completion in response to an absent component, essentially filling in the missing information and allowing perceptual stability. This piriform cortical ensemble activity predicts olfactory perception.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Odor discrimination and stability.
Figure 2: Piriform cortical ensembles predict behavioral discrimination.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Hasselmo, M.E. Trends Cogn. Sci. 3, 351–359 (1999).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Leutgeb, J.K., Leutgeb, S., Moser, M.B. & Moser, E.I. Science 315, 961–966 (2007).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Marr, D. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 262, 23–81 (1971).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. O'Reilly, R.C. & McClelland, J.L. Hippocampus 4, 661–682 (1994).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Treves, A. & Rolls, E.T. Hippocampus 2, 189–199 (1992).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Hebb, D.O. The Organization of Behavior: a Neuropsychological Theory (John Wiley, New York, 1949).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Lin, D.Y., Shea, S.D. & Katz, L.C. Neuron 50, 937–949 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Polak, E.H. J. Theor. Biol. 40, 469–484 (1973).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Wilson, D.A. & Stevenson, R.J. Learning to Smell: Olfactory Perception From Neurobiology to Behavior (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Hopfield, J.J. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88, 6462–6466 (1991).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Haberly, L.B. Chem. Senses 26, 551–576 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Laing, D.G. & Francis, G.W. Physiol. Behav. 46, 809–814 (1989).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Wilson, D.A. J. Neurophysiol. 90, 65–72 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Bakker, A., Kirwan, C.B., Miller, M. & Stark, C.E.L. Science 319, 1640–1642 (2008).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Silva Ferreira, A.C., Hogg, T. & Guedes de Pinho, P. J. Agric. Food Chem. 51, 1377–1381 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by grant R01-DC03906 to D.A.W. and grant R01-DC008982 to R.L.R and D.A.W. from the US National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Donald A Wilson

    Present address: Present addresses: Emotional Brain Institute, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, 140 Old Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, New York 10962, USA; Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York 10016 (D.A.W.).,

  2. Dylan C Barnes and Rylon D Hofacer: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Neurobehavioral Institute, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, 73019, Oklahoma, USA

    Dylan C Barnes, Rylon D Hofacer, Ashiq R Zaman & Donald A Wilson

  2. Neural Engineering Lab, School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Oklahoma, 865 Asp Avenue, Norman, 73019, Oklahoma, USA

    Robert L Rennaker

Authors
  1. Dylan C Barnes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rylon D Hofacer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ashiq R Zaman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Robert L Rennaker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Donald A Wilson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

D.C.B., R.D.H., A.R.Z., R.L.R. and D.A.W. collected and analyzed the data. D.A.W. designed the experiments and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donald A Wilson.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1 and 2, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2, Supplementary Methods and Supplementary Results (PDF 849 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Barnes, D., Hofacer, R., Zaman, A. et al. Olfactory perceptual stability and discrimination. Nat Neurosci 11, 1378–1380 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2217

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2217

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing