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J Neurophysiol (September 12, 2007). doi:10.1152/jn.00560.2007 Free Article
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Submitted on May 18, 2007
Accepted on August 31, 2007

Olfactory coding with all-or-nothing glomeruli

Alexei Koulakov1*, Alan Gelperin2, and Dmitry Rinberg3

1 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, United States
2 Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
3 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia, United States

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: akula{at}cshl.edu.

We present a model for olfactory coding based on spatial representation of glomerular responses. In this model distinct odorants activate specific subsets of glomeruli, dependent upon the odorant's chemical identity and concentration. The glomerular response specificities are understood statistically, based on experimentally measured distributions of detection thresholds. A simple version of the model, in which glomerular responses are binary (the all-or-nothing model), allows us to account quantitatively for the following results of human/rodent olfactory psychophysics: 1) just noticeable differences in the perceived concentration of a single odor (Weber ratios) are as low as dC/C ~ 0.04; 2) the number of simultaneously perceived odors can be as high as 12; 3) extensive lesions of the olfactory bulb do not lead to significant changes in detection or discrimination thresholds. We conclude that a combinatorial code based on a binary glomerular response is sufficient to account for several important aspects of the discrimination capacity of the mammalian olfactory system.




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