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Spatial distribution of neural activity in the anterior olfactory nucleus evoked by odor and electrical stimulation
Author(s) -
Kay Rachel B.,
Meyer Elizabeth Amory,
Illig Kurt R.,
Brunjes Peter C.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of comparative neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 209
eISSN - 1096-9861
pISSN - 0021-9967
DOI - 10.1002/cne.22519
Subject(s) - piriform cortex , olfactory bulb , odor , neuroscience , biology , anterior olfactory nucleus , olfactory system , olfaction , stimulation , tectum , central nervous system , anatomy , olfactory tubercle , midbrain
Several lines of evidence indicate that complex odorant stimuli are parsed into separate data streams in the glomeruli of the olfactory bulb, yielding a combinatorial “odotopic map.” However, this pattern does not appear to be maintained in the piriform cortex, where stimuli appear to be coded in a distributed fashion. The anterior olfactory nucleus (AON) is intermediate and reciprocally interconnected between these two structures, and also provides a route for the interhemispheric transfer of olfactory information. The present study examined potential coding strategies used by the AON. Rats were exposed to either caproic acid, butyric acid, limonene, or purified air and the spatial distribution of Fos‐immunolabeled cells was quantified. The two major subregions of the AON exhibited different results. Distinct odor‐specific spatial patterns of activity were observed in pars externa, suggesting that it employs a topographic strategy for odor representation similar to the olfactory bulb. A spatially distributed pattern that did not appear to depend on odor identity was observed in pars principalis, suggesting that it employs a distributed representation of odors more similar to that seen in the piriform cortex. J. Comp. Neurol. 519:277‐289, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.