Review
Neurosciences
Benjamin Fabian, Silke Sachse
Summary: This review recapitulates the establishment and original meaning of plasticity in neuroscience, introduces the basic composition of the insect olfactory system using Drosophila melanogaster as an example, and outlines experience-dependent plasticity effects observed in various insects. The recent advances in the study of experience-dependent plasticity effects in the olfactory system of D. melanogaster are highlighted, along with discussions on common research problems, overcoming methods, and future directions.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biology
Zhannetta V. Gugel, Elizabeth G. Maurais, Elizabeth J. Hong
Summary: In fruit flies, chronic exposure to odors at normal concentrations in natural environments has a mild effect on olfactory behavior. This is different from the effect of higher concentrations of odors, which reduce the aversion to familiar odors in fruit flies.
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Karen Rihani, Silke Sachse
Summary: Inter-individual differences in behavioral responses, anatomy or functional properties of neuronal populations of animals having the same genotype were for a long time disregarded. Recent studies have shown that individuals with the same genotype can have significant differences in their behavioral biases and preferences to olfactory stimuli. This review focuses on olfaction in the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster and discusses the factors that might influence individuality with regard to olfactory perception.
FRONTIERS IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Srinath Nizampatnam, Lijun Zhang, Rishabh Chandak, James Li, Baranidharan Raman
Summary: This article investigates the problem of stimulus recognition in the locust olfactory system. The researchers found that locusts can robustly recognize trained odorants even with various variations in stimuli. The results suggest that a linear statistical decoding scheme can resolve the issue of neural variability and behavioral stability.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Biology
Cheyenne Tait, Hinal Kharva, Marco Schubert, Daniel Kritsch, Andy Sombke, Juergen Rybak, Jeffrey L. Feder, Shannon B. Olsson
Summary: Changes in behaviour can lead to rapid adaptive evolution and speciation, as seen in the fruit fly Rhagoletis pomonella. The reversal in sensory processing of key odours associated with host fruit preference between apple and hawthorn flies may drive ongoing ecological divergence and speciation. Specific neural pathway changes in sensory modalities could be a broad mechanism for animal behavior changes, contributing to the creation of new biodiversity.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Nutrition & Dietetics
Agnieszka Sorokowska, Dominika Chabin, Thomas Hummel, Maciej Karwowski
Summary: This study examines the relationship between food neophobia and olfaction in adolescents, and significant correlations were found between the two. Self-assessed sensitivity and odor awareness were identified as the most influential predictors of food neophobia related to olfaction.
Article
Biology
Bjoern Trebels, Stefan Dippel, Brigitte Goetz, Maria Graebner, Carolin Hofmann, Florian Hofmann, Freya-Rebecca Schmid, Mara Uhl, Minh-Phung Vuong, Vanessa Weber, Joachim Schachtner
Summary: The study reveals that sensory neurons in the larval antennae of the red flour beetle are reused in the adult stage, while the structure of the antennal lobe undergoes transformation. The formation of adult glomeruli in the antennal lobe during mid-metamorphosis is a common feature among different insect species, although the role of Orco in development may vary.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kevin W. Zhu, Shawn D. Burton, Maira H. Nagai, Justin D. Silverman, Claire A. de March, Matt Wachowiak, Hiroaki Matsunami
Summary: This study utilized targeted spatial transcriptomics to map the distribution of olfactory receptors in the murine olfactory bulb and generated a 3D model. The findings revealed a relationship between receptors and odorants, providing significant insights into olfaction.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Review
Cell Biology
Julia Mariette, Julie Carcaud, Jean-Christophe Sandoz
Summary: The honeybee Apis mellifera L. is a key pollinator and scientific model organism, with olfactory perception in mating behaviors of males (drones) and queens, as well as brain pathways involved in processing pheromones, being focal points of research. New evidence suggests the existence of multiple odorant cues in honeybee mating, including not only queen-produced signals but also drone-produced signals, indicating potential evolutionary changes in their olfactory systems. Exciting research avenues are being explored to deepen our understanding of the neural basis of bees' mating behaviors.
CELL AND TISSUE RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Biology
Kevin S. Chen, Rui Wu, Marc H. Gershow, Andrew M. Leifer
Summary: Olfactory navigation plays a crucial role in the survival of animals and is observed across species. This study presents a method to control and measure airborne odor concentration in an arena compatible with an agar substrate, allowing continuous monitoring of odor profile while imaging animal behavior. The researchers successfully measured the odor concentration experienced by C. elegans and D. melanogaster larvae populations as they navigate spatial odor landscapes.
Article
Biology
Darya Task, Chun-Chieh Lin, Alina Vulpe, Ali Afify, Sydney Ballou, Maria Brbic, Philipp Schlegel, Joshua Raji, Gregory Jefferis, Hongjie Li, Karen Menuz, Christopher J. Potter
Summary: Recent research has found that there is co-expression of chemosensory receptors in Drosophila olfactory neurons. The expression patterns of co-receptors in the fly's olfactory system are more extensive than previously assumed. These findings are important for our understanding of the function and mechanisms of insect olfaction.
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Jonas Hansen Kymre, Xi Chu, Elena Ian, Bente Gunnveig Berg
Summary: This paper reviews new information on the structure of the insect olfactory pathways, with a focus on the connection patterns of output neurons from the antennal lobe in moths. The study reveals that the antennal lobe transmits information through six separate tracts and identifies how male moths transmit distinct signals from conspecific and heterospecific females through parallel tracts.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Entomology
Marco Paoli, Yuri Antonacci, Angela Albi, Luca Faes, Albrecht Haase
Summary: In this study, the neuronal activity in the honey bee's peripheral olfactory system, the antennal lobes, was imaged. A new approach was used to analyze the causal connections between the glomeruli instead of just focusing on their activity patterns. The analysis showed that these connections are present even without olfactory stimulation and become odorant-specific upon exposure to an odor pulse.
Article
Neurosciences
Suzanne M. Lewis, Lai Xu, Nicola Rigolli, Mohammad F. Tariq, Lucas M. Suarez, Merav Stern, Agnese Seminara, David H. Gire
Summary: Mice utilize turbulent airborne odor plumes to locate resources, but the stochasticity and intermittency of fluctuating plumes create challenges for interpreting odor cues in natural environments. Population activity within the olfactory bulb is believed to process this complex spatial and temporal information, and this study measured odor representation in the early stage of the mouse olfactory system.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Biology
Sudeshna Das Chakraborty, Hetan Chang, Bill S. Hansson, Silke Sachse, Sonia Sen
Summary: This study investigated the transformation and representation of odor information in higher-order neurons of the lateral horn in Drosophila melanogaster. The researchers found that these neurons exhibited reproducible, stereotypic, and odor-specific response patterns. Importantly, the response amplitude of these neurons was positively correlated with innate odor preferences, suggesting that their activity is valence-specific. The study also revealed that the excitatory input to glutamatergic lateral horn neurons primarily came from uniglomerular projection neurons, while odor-specific inhibition was mediated by inhibitory multiglomerular neurons.