An Information Theory of Olfaction

Hainer, R. M.; Emslie, A. G.; Jacobson, Ada

doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1954.tb54851.x

Cited by 46 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Stimulation and subsequent depolarization of one or more such axons within a fascicle would seem likely to A. L D~ LORENZO 847 depolarize the membranes of adjacent fibers. An alternative explanation might be derived from the arrangement of the olfactory glomerulus (22) where oscillations might be generated as dendritic potentials in the extensive glomerular regions.…”

Section: The Olfactory Nervesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electron Microscopic Observations of the Olfactory Mucosa and Olfactory Nerve

Lorenzo

1957

The Journal of Cell Biology

174

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The olfactory epithelium of mammals is simple in appearance when fixed and stained with conventional techniques and viewed with the light microscope. In it, there are three types of cells, the olfactory receptors, the supporting, and the basal cells, all of which rest upon a thin basement membrane, demonstrable only with difficulty (1-5). In spite of its apparently simple organization and single type of receptor element, the olfactory epithelium is capable of remarkably fine sensory discriminations. Olfactory receptors respond to stimulating substances in extraordinarily small concentration. Moreover, the receptors are sensitive to an enormous range of odoriferous substances.Electrophysiological investigations (6-9) have led several investigators to suggest recently that discrimination depends upon the existence of different types of olfactory receptors with selective sensitivities to basic odors, and although the spatial distribution of receptors may account for coarse discriminations of odors, fine differentiation seems to depend upon specific sensitivity of individual receptors to particular molecular configurations (9).These findings pose the question of whether or not the olfactory receptors exhibit morphological differences corresponding to their functional heterogeneity. By way of answering this, the studies of Le Gros Clark (10-12) have demonstrated several histological differences among receptor cells. For example, the receptors vary in their affinity for silver stains, in the length and diameter of the rod processes, in the size of their terminal swellings, and in the number of olfactory hairs. They also differ markedly in their degree of degeneration after destruction of the olfactory bulb (12).It must be admitted, however, that the limited resolution of the light microscope does not permit a sufficiently detailed analysis of the olfactory receptors and their relationships to the other cells of the olfactory epithelium. For example, the receptor processes are difficult to demonstrate reliably even in the best histological preparations. In addition, many of the central processes of the * This investigation has been aided in part by Grant B-425 and RG 3784 from the United States

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Section: The Olfactory Nervesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electron Microscopic Observations of the Olfactory Mucosa and Olfactory Nerve

Lorenzo

1957

The Journal of Cell Biology

174

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“…Our model connects previous results from simulations of the neural circuits [18–23] to system-level descriptions of the olfactory system [24–27]. To arrive at a general model of olfaction that applies to insects and mammals, we chose a simplified description, which focuses on global inhibition, as described in the next section.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Normalized Neural Representations of Complex Odors

Zwicker

2016

PLoS ONE

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The olfactory system removes correlations in natural odors using a network of inhibitory neurons in the olfactory bulb. It has been proposed that this network integrates the response from all olfactory receptors and inhibits them equally. However, how such global inhibition influences the neural representations of odors is unclear. Here, we study a simple statistical model of the processing in the olfactory bulb, which leads to concentration-invariant, sparse representations of the odor composition. We show that the inhibition strength can be tuned to obtain sparse representations that are still useful to discriminate odors that vary in relative concentration, size, and composition. The model reveals two generic consequences of global inhibition: (i) odors with many molecular species are more difficult to discriminate and (ii) receptor arrays with heterogeneous sensitivities perform badly. Comparing these predictions to experiments will help us to understand the role of global inhibition in shaping normalized odor representations in the olfactory bulb.

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“…An entirely different approach to the formulation of a theory was taken by Hainer, Emslie & Jacobson (120,121). They asked how much informational capacity must be possessed by the olfactory nerves as indicated by subjective experience, the known facts of n ' europhysiology, an d the requirements of in formational transmission and storage.…”

Section: The Receptive Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Olfaction

Wenzel¹,

Steck²

1966

Annu. Rev. Physiol.

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I The search of the literature was (:onc1uded on November 1, 1965. I The authors wish to acknowledge the bibliogranhic aid supplied by the UCLA Brain Information Service, under Contract {fDHEW-PH-4J-64-89Z to the NINDB. 381 Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1966.28:381-432. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by University of Waterloo on 02/05/15. For personal use only. Quick links to online content Further ANNUAL REVIEWS Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1966.28:381-432. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by University of Waterloo on 02/05/15. For personal use only.

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An Information Theory of Olfaction

Cited by 46 publications

References 0 publications

Electron Microscopic Observations of the Olfactory Mucosa and Olfactory Nerve

Electron Microscopic Observations of the Olfactory Mucosa and Olfactory Nerve

Normalized Neural Representations of Complex Odors

Olfaction

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