• The art of smell: Research suggests the

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Mon Apr 4 22:30:44 2022
    The art of smell: Research suggests the brain processes smell both like
    a painting and a symphony

    Date:
    April 4, 2022
    Source:
    University of Rochester Medical Center
    Summary:
    What happens when we smell a rose? How does our brain process the
    essence of its fragrance? Is it like a painting -- a snapshot
    of the flickering activity of cells -- captured in a moment in
    time? Or like a symphony, an evolving ensemble of different cells
    working together to capture the scent? New research suggests that
    our brain does both.



    FULL STORY ==========================================================================
    What happens when we smell a rose? How does our brain process the essence
    of its fragrance? Is it like a painting -- a snapshot of the flickering activity of cells -- captured in a moment in time? Or like a symphony,
    an evolving ensemble of different cells working together to capture the
    scent? New research suggests that our brain does both.


    ========================================================================== "These findings reveal a core principle of the nervous system, flexibility
    in the kinds of calculations the brain makes to represent aspects of the sensory world," said Krishnan Padmanabhan, Ph.D., an associate professor
    of Neuroscience and senior author of the study recently published in
    Cell Reports.

    "Our work provides scientists with new tools to quantify and interpret
    the patterns of activity of the brain." Researchers developed a model
    to simulate the workings of the early olfactory system -- the network
    the brain relies on for smelling. Employing computer simulations,
    they found a specific set of connections, called centrifugal fibers,
    which carry impulses from other parts of the central nervous system to
    the early sensory regions of the brain, played a critical role. These centrifugal fibers act as a switch, toggling between different strategies
    to efficiently represent smells. When the centrifugal fibers were in
    one state, the cells in the piriform cortex -- where the perception
    of an odor forms - - relied on the pattern of activity within a given
    instant in time. When the centrifugal fibers were in the other state,
    the cells in the piriform cortex improved both the accuracy and the
    speed with which cells detected and classified the smell by relying on
    the patterns of brain activity across time.

    These processes suggest the brain has multiple responses to representing
    a smell. In one strategy, the brain uses a snapshot, like a painting
    or a photograph, at a given moment to capture the essential features of
    the odor. In the other strategy, the brain keeps track of the evolving patterns. It is attuned to which cells turn on and off and when --
    like a symphony.

    The mathematical models the researchers developed highlight the
    critical feature of the nervous system -- not only diversity in terms
    of the components that make up the brain but also how these components
    work together to help the brain experience the world of smell. "These mathematical models reveal critical aspects of how the olfactory system
    in the brain might work and could help build brain-inspired artificial computing systems," Padmanabhan said.

    "Computational approaches inspired by the circuits of the brain such
    as this have the potential to improve the safety of self-driving
    cars, or help computer vision algorithms more accurately identify and
    classify objects in an image." Additional authors include Zhen Chen of
    the University of Rochester. The research was funded by the National
    Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Cystinosis
    Research Foundation, and the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at
    the University of Rochester Pilot Program.


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
    University_of_Rochester_Medical_Center. Original written by Kelsie Smith Hayduk. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Zhen Chen, Krishnan Padmanabhan. Top-down feedback enables flexible
    coding strategies in the olfactory cortex. Cell Reports, 2022; 38
    (12): 110545 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110545 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220404164559.htm

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