Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Odelia Chitrit, Qingjia Bao, Aoling Cai, Silvia Gabriela Chuartzman, Noga Zilkha, Rafi Haddad, Tali Kimchi, Lucio Frydman
Summary: Single-shot ultrahigh field functional MRI (UHF fMRI) with Spatiotemporal Encoding (SPEN) technique provides valuable insights into olfactory responses at 15.2T, showing significant activation regions in olfactory bulbs of male and female mice. The non-linear signal changes in response to different odors suggest a link between chemosensory signals and olfactory processing, highlighting specific activation regions under aversive or appetitive stimuli.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Odelia Chitrit, Qingjia Bao, Aoling Cai, Silvia Gabriela Chuartzman, Noga Zilkha, Rafi Haddad, Tali Kimchi, Lucio Frydman
Summary: Single-shot ultrahigh field functional MRI (UHF fMRI) with increased sensitivity is valuable for studying subtle brain functions such as olfaction. However, small organs like the olfactory bulb are affected by field inhomogeneity problems. A technique called Spatiotemporal Encoding (SPEN) can bypass these problems and provide clear responses to olfactory cues. Experiments on male and female mice at 15.2T using SPEN images showed significant activations in specific regions when stimulated by aversive or appetitive odors, shedding light on the reaction of the olfactory epithelium to different cues.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Cinzia Cecchetto, Elisa Dal Bo, Marilena Aiello, Florian Ph. S. Fischmeister, Claudio Gentili, Sofia Adelaide Osimo
Summary: Although emotion and olfaction are closely linked, only a few studies have investigated olfactory processing in alexithymia, a condition characterized by altered emotional processing. The results of these studies suggest that individuals with high alexithymia levels do not have lower olfactory abilities or different perceptions of odors, but they do exhibit lower levels of awareness and indifference towards odors. The cognitive and affective components of alexithymia have different effects on olfactory perception.
Article
Biology
Spencer Chin-Yu Chen, Giacomo Benvenuti, Yuzhi Chen, Satwant Kumar, Charu Ramakrishnan, Karl Deisseroth, Wilson S. Geisler, Eyal Seidemann
Summary: The study investigates whether direct stimulation of primate V1 can substitute for a visual stimulus and mimic its perceptual effect. The researchers developed an optical-genetic toolkit to 'read' and 'write' neural population responses in behaving macaques. The results show that low-power optogenetic stimulation in V1 can mimic the visual masking effect, and there is a sublinear interaction between visual and optogenetic-evoked V1 responses that accounts for this effect. These findings provide further insights into perceptual substitutions by direct stimulation of sensory cortex.
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Guy Leonard, Luis Javier Galindo, David S. Milner, Gabriela Mol Avelar, Andre L. Gomes-Vieira, Suely L. Gomes, Thomas A. Richards
Summary: This article reports the highly contiguous genome assembly and gene annotation of the Blastocladiella emersonii strain. The study assesses the diversity of sensory system encoding genes in this species, identifying a rich complement of G-protein-coupled receptors, ion transporters, and nucleotide cyclases. The findings suggest that the sensory-signaling systems of B. emersonii have diversified through domain recombination and tandem duplication.
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Biology
Sho Kurihara, Masayoshi Tei, Junichi Hata, Eri Mori, Masato Fujioka, Yoshinori Matsuwaki, Nobuyoshi Otori, Hiromi Kojima, Hirotaka James Okano
Summary: Combined high-field MRI and DTI analyses allow visualization of olfactory sensory neurons and their projections, providing olfactory nerve maps in humans, marmosets, and mice. This technique has the potential to be used clinically for the diagnosis of olfactory dysfunction.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Daniel Kaiser, Rico Stecher, Katja Doerschner
Summary: This study investigated how expectations influence the temporal dynamics of cortical visual analysis for objects and their materials. The neural representations of expected and unexpected material behaviors were tracked using time-resolved EEG decoding. The results showed that both objects and materials were rapidly and consistently represented in the brain. Objects displaying unexpected behaviors were more successfully decoded than those displaying expected behaviors within 190 ms after impact, suggesting additional processing demands when expectations are violated. General signals of expectation fulfillment were found within the first 150 ms after impact. These findings provide new insights into the neural processing cascade underlying the analysis of real-world material behaviors.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Burak Bali, David Lopez de la Morena, Artur Mittring, Thomas Mager, Vladan Rankovic, Antoine Tarquin Huet, Tobias Moser
Summary: The study investigated the utility of fast and very fast variants of the red-light-activated ChR Chrimson for optogenetic stimulation of SGNs in mice. It was found that vf-Chrimson enabled the SGNs to fire at near-physiological rates with good temporal precision, although the light requirements were higher compared to f-Chrimson. The dynamic range of spike rate coding upon optogenetic stimulation was narrower than for acoustic clicks but larger than reported for electrical stimulation.
EMBO MOLECULAR MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Mathematical & Computational Biology
Kamesh Krishnamurthy, Ann M. Hermundstad, Thierry Mora, Aleksandra M. Walczak, Vijay Balasubramanian
Summary: This article proposes how the architecture of olfactory circuits uses disorder, diffuse sensing, and redundancy in representation to process olfactory information. The binding of receptors to molecules in a diffuse and disordered manner compresses the odor space into a small receptor space, reducing the correlation in the low-dimensional receptor code through lateral interactions. Expansive disordered projections from the periphery to the central brain reconfigure the information into a high-dimensional representation, allowing downstream neurons to learn flexible associations and valences.
FRONTIERS IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Krzysztof Basinski, David Ricardo Quiroga-Martinez, Peter Vuust
Summary: Listening to musical melodies engages complex perceptual and memory-related processes, happening simultaneously on different timescales. However, research on melody perception has not yet produced a unified framework due to the difficulty of integrating concepts such as perception, attention, and memory. Recent theories on predictive coding offer potential solutions and a unifying framework for explaining neural processes involved in melody perception. This article reviews empirical evidence for predictive coding in pitch formation, auditory patterns, regularity processing, and long-term expectations related to musical syntax while suggesting further inquiry and future research directions.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yuta Tanisumi, Kazuki Shiotani, Junya Hirokawa, Yoshio Sakurai, Hiroyuki Manabe
Summary: The study found that NLOT neurons exhibit different responses during decision-making behaviors, encoding odor information bidirectionally and providing accurate odor decoding before executing behaviors.
Article
History & Philosophy Of Science
Christopher F. Masciari
Summary: This paper presents different perspectives on olfactory representation and argues against the traditional view of olfactory object representation. It introduces the idea of minimal representation and concludes that olfaction issues in minimal representations. Furthermore, it argues that objectual representations of olfactory objects are constructed through interactions between various mental systems, and introduces existing research on feature-binding, attention, and object-files to support this argument.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Praveen Kuruppath, Leonardo Belluscio
Summary: The duration of a stimulus plays a crucial role in olfactory perception and associated behavioral responses, although the exact mechanism behind this relationship is not fully understood.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Reza Azadi, Simon Bohn, Emily Lopez, Rosa Lafer-Sousa, Karen Wang, Mark A. G. Eldridge, Arash Afraz
Summary: Artificial activation of neurons in early visual areas induces perception of simple visual flashes. Stimulation in high-level visual cortices is expected to induce perception of complex features. However, studies in human patients have shown that stimulation rarely induces detectable visual events, and stimulation of specific cortices only leads to hallucinations when subjects are looking at relevant objects. Anecdotal observations suggest that stimulation of high-level visual cortex can evoke perception of complex visual features, but these effects depend on the availability and content of visual input.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Elisa Dal Bo, Claudio Gentili, Andrea Castellani, Carmen Tripodi, Florian Ph S. Fischmeister, Cinzia Cecchetto
Summary: This study found that symptoms of anxiety were associated with higher levels of awareness of common odors, while symptoms of depression and social anxiety were associated with increased awareness of social odors. Assessing meta-cognitive abilities may be a useful tool in preventing and evaluating symptoms of depression, anxiety, and social anxiety.
JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Martina Valente, Giuseppe Pica, Giulio Bondanelli, Monica Moroni, Caroline A. Runyan, Ari S. Morcos, Christopher D. Harvey, Stefano Panzeri
Summary: Correlations in neural activity in association cortex can benefit behavioral performance in perceptual tasks, even when decreasing sensory information. Correlations reduce the encoded stimulus information, but paradoxically increase when correct choices are made. Single-trial decisions not only rely on the stimulus information encoded by the whole population, but also on the consistency of information across neurons and time.
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Demetrio Ferro, Jochem van Kempen, Michael Boyd, Stefano Panzeri, Alexander Thiele
Summary: The study revealed how visual information flows between cortical layers within and between macaque brain areas V1 and V4, showing dominance of information flow in certain directions and layers based on attentional modulation. Low-frequency communication was stronger from V4 to V1, with little layer specificity, while gamma-band communication was stronger in the feedforward direction. Attention decreased communication within V1 layers but increased communication within V4 and from V1 to V4 across all frequencies, showing that top-down cognitive processes play a role in modulating communication in the brain.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Biophysics
Erez Shor, Pedro Herrero-Vidal, Adam Dewan, Ilke Uguz, Vincenzo F. Curto, George G. Malliaras, Cristina Savin, Thomas Bozza, Dmitry Rinberg
Summary: Biological olfactory systems excel in detecting volatile chemicals, leading to a significant increase in using trained animals for chemical detection. A new alternative, a bio-electronic nose, has been proposed to directly read olfactory information from the brain, bypassing the need for behavioral communication with animals. By combining neuronal signals with machine learning techniques, this bio-electronic nose outperforms current methods in terms of stability, specificity, and versatility.
BIOSENSORS & BIOELECTRONICS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Shahryar Noei, Ioannis S. Zouridis, Nikos K. Logothetis, Stefano Panzeri, Nelson K. Totah
Summary: The noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) plays a crucial role in controlling brain and behavioral states. It has been found that different ensembles of spontaneously coactive LC neurons could lead to diverse cortical states, with some showing high-frequency power increase and others showing decreased high-frequency power.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Editorial Material
Acoustics
N. Pretti, D. Paladini, S. Panzeri, C. Becchio
ULTRASOUND IN OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Cell Biology
Nikolas A. Francis, Shoutik Mukherjee, Loren Kocillari, Stefano Panzeri, Behtash Babadi, Patrick O. Kanold
Summary: This study uses two-photon imaging to investigate the activity of neurons in the primary auditory cortex of mice during a pure-tone discrimination task. The findings show that these neurons encode sensory information and behavioral choices, and network structures differ depending on the behavior and stimulus tones.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Sebastiano Curreli, Jacopo Bonato, Sara Romanzi, Stefano Panzeri, Tommaso Fellin
Summary: Calcium signals in astrocytes can encode spatial information, and they work complementarily and synergistically with neuronal signals to enhance spatial position decoding accuracy. This indicates that localized astrocytic calcium signals may regulate nearby synapse clusters and enable dynamic, context-dependent variations in population coding within brain circuits.
Review
Neurosciences
Stefano Panzeri, Monica Moroni, Houman Safaai, Christopher D. Harvey
Summary: In this Review, Panzeri, Moroni, Safaai and Harvey discuss the effects of correlations among the activity of neurons in a population on information encoding, transmission, and readout. They also suggest future research directions on determining the optimization of correlation structures.
NATURE REVIEWS NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Giulia Corniani, Miguel A. Casal, Stefano Panzeri, Hannes P. Saal
Summary: Research shows that the encoding of sensory information relies on populations of neurons, with different neuronal populations encoding redundant and complementary information for various tactile features. Combining multiple classes of neurons improves information transmission efficiency. Additionally, temporal information plays a more important role in joint encoding compared to spatial information, although this depends on the analyzed stimulus feature.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Veronika Koren, Giulio Bondanelli, Stefano Panzeri
Summary: The brain, being an information processing machine, is best studied using computational tools based on the principles of information theory. Computational methods inspired by information theory have played a crucial role in advancing the field of neuroscience. This review discusses how these methods have contributed to the development of theories of information processing in neural circuits and mathematical methods for analyzing neural population recordings, revealing essential functions performed by neural circuits.
COMPUTATIONAL AND STRUCTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Shinichiro Kira, Houman Safaai, Ari S. Morcos, Stefano Panzeri, Christopher D. Harvey
Summary: Decision-making relies on flexibility to respond rapidly to sensory stimuli based on stored memory information. The study identifies cortical areas and neural patterns that underlie this flexibility during virtual navigation in mice. The authors find that neurons in posterior cortex mix sensory and memory information, allowing for flexible navigation decisions within the visual-parietal-retrosplenial network. The findings highlight the importance of adaptability in navigation routes.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Review
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Stefano Panzeri, Ella Janotte, Alejandro Pequeno-Zurro, Jacopo Bonato, Chiara Bartolozzi
Summary: This review critically examines how population of neurons encode and transmit information, including the sparseness of neural representations, the heterogeneity of neural properties, the correlations among neurons, and the timescales at which neurons encode and maintain information. These findings have important implications for the design of information coding in neuromorphic circuits for communication with the brain and for the implementation or emulation of neural computation.
NEUROMORPHIC COMPUTING AND ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Hirofumi Nakayama, Richard C. Gerkin, Dmitry Rinberg
Summary: The article introduces a behavioral paradigm that quantifies perceptual similarity between sensory stimuli using mouse olfaction as a model system. This is crucial for understanding neural computations responsible for sensory representations.
CELL REPORTS METHODS
(2022)
Proceedings Paper
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Jacopo Bonato, Sebastiano Curreli, Tommaso Fellin, Stefano Panzeri
Summary: Recent studies have shown that astrocytic activity can provide information about cognitive variables that is not found in nearby neurons. This study constructed simulations to understand how to analyze astrocytic activity optimally. The techniques were applied to real and simulated data, providing estimates of astrocytic contribution to brain information processing.
BRAIN INFORMATICS (BI 2022)
(2022)
Proceedings Paper
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Marco Celotto, Stefan Lemke, Stefano Panzeri
Summary: This study investigated how to capture the temporal evolution of synaptic weights from measures of dynamic functional connectivity. The researchers found that cross-covariance is a better method for capturing the evolution of synaptic weights over time.
BRAIN INFORMATICS (BI 2022)
(2022)
