A wide concentration range olfactometer for delivery of short reproducible odor pulses

Vigouroux, Michel; Viret, Patricia; Duchamp, André

doi:10.1016/0165-0270(88)90033-7

Cited by 32 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Odorants were delivered using a dynamic flow multistage olfactometer (Vigouroux et al, 1988) as 2 s square pulses, with precisely controlled concentrations and time course, applied directly near the surface of the olfactory mucosa at a constant temperature (22°C) and flow rate (200 ml/min). Twelve dilutions of the SV were available, the dilution factors being d ϭ 2 ϫ 10…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competitive and Noncompetitive Odorant Interactions in the Early Neural Coding of Odorant Mixtures

Rospars¹,

Lánský²,

Chaput³

et al. 2008

J. Neurosci.

167

231

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Most olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) express a single type of olfactory receptor that is differentially sensitive to a wide variety of odorant molecules. The diversity of possible odorant-receptor interactions raises challenging problems for the coding of complex mixtures of many odorants, which make up the vast majority of real world odors. Pure competition, the simplest kind of interaction, arises when two or more agonists can bind to the main receptor site, which triggers receptor activation, although only one can be bound at a time. Noncompetitive effects may result from various mechanisms, including agonist binding to another site, which modifies the receptor properties at the main binding site. Here, we investigated the electrophysiological responses of rat ORNs in vivo to odorant agonists and their binary mixtures and interpreted them in the framework of a quantitative model of competitive interaction between odorants. We found that this model accounts for all concentration-response curves obtained with single odorants and for about half of those obtained with binary mixtures. In the other half, the shifts of curves along the concentration axis and the changes of maximal responses with respect to model predictions, indicate that noncompetitive interactions occur and can modulate olfactory receptors. We conclude that, because of their high frequency, the noncompetitive interactions play a major role in the neural coding of natural odorant mixtures. This finding implies that the CNS activity caused by mixtures will not be easily analyzed into components, and that mixture responses will be difficult to generalize across concentration.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competitive and Noncompetitive Odorant Interactions in the Early Neural Coding of Odorant Mixtures

Rospars¹,

Lánský²,

Chaput³

et al. 2008

J. Neurosci.

167

231

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Special precautions were in place to ensure that the radioactive odors did not escape. Another system presented odors in a wide range of precise dilution values for the quantification of olfactory response (Vigouroux, Viret, & Duchamp, 1988). For precisely metered absolute amounts of odorant, rather than concentrations of odorant in the air flow, Palmer, Stough, and Patterson (1999) described a nebulizer system.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A low-cost, MR-compatible olfactometer

Lowen

Lukas

2006

Behavior Research Methods

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We present a design for an olfactometer, suitable for fMRI experiments, that can be constructed at extremely low cost. The olfactometer presents odors directly to the nose via a nasal cannula at unobtrusively low flow velocities, with no large assemblies required on or near the subject's face. The olfactometer can be controlled manually, or by computer via a serial interface. A validation study verified that the olfactometer reliably presents odors to test subjects. Errors and response latency times decreased with increased flow rate in an orderly manner, as expected.

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“…The pioneers of olfactometry have published several manuscripts describing the conceptual framework of olfactometer design (Benignus and Prah, 1980;deWijk et al, 1996;Kobal, 1985;Lorig et al, 1999;Prah et al, 1995;Slotnick, 1990;Vigouroux et al, 1988). Here we made no claims to innovate beyond these concepts.…”

Section: Olfactometer Constructionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Several theoretical design features of olfactometry have been developed and published (Benignus and Prah, 1980;deWijk et al, 1996;Kobal, 1985;Lorig et al, 1999;Prah et al, 1995;Slotnick, 1990;Vigouroux et al, 1988). Whereas these design features have been described in principal, a text akin to a construction manual remains unavailable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%