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Piriform cortex layer II/III neuron intracellular response to odor (respiratory cycle on top)
Note rapid habituation over 3 respiratory cycles.
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Our research on olfactory system sensory physiology focuses on experience-induced changes in perception and sensory coding in the olfactory bulb and piriform cortex. We are particularly interested in how complex mixtures come to be processed and perceived as perceptual odor objects. We hypothesize that at the perceptual and cortical levels, olfactory perception is surprisingly similar to, and as complex as, visual object perception. Specific questions my students and I are addressing include:How are mixture component synthesized into unique odor objects? How are odors processed in the presence of background odors? How does adaptation to odor stimulation influence response properties of mitral/tufted cells and piriform cortex neurons? What are the synaptic mechanisms of cortical adaptation in the olfactory system? How are receptive field properties of piriform cortex neurons used by the olfactory system?
Selected publications
Wilson, D.A. and Sullivan, R.M. Blockade of mitral/tufted
cell habituation to odors by association with reward: A preliminary note. Brain Research, 1992, 594:143-145.
Wilson, D.A. and Sullivan, R.M. The D2 antagonist
spiperone mimics the effects of olfactory deprivation on mitral/tufted cell
odor response patterns. Journal of Neuroscience, 1995, 15: 5574-5581.
Wilson, D.A., Sullivan, R.M., Gall, C.M. and Guthrie, K.M.
NMDA-receptor modulation of lateral inhibition and c-fos expression in olfactory
bulb. Brain Research, 1996, 719:62-71.
Wilson, D.A. Bi-naral interactions in the rat piriform
cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology, 1997, 78:160-169.
Wilson, D.A. A comparison of odor receptive field plasticity
in the rat olfactory bulb and anterior piriform cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology
, 2000, 84:3036-3042.
Wilson, D.A. Receptive fields in rat primary olfactory cortex. Chemical Senses, 2001, 26:577-584.
Wilson, D.A. and Stevenson, R.J. The fundamental
role of memory in olfactory perception. Trends in Neuroscience, 2003,
26:243-247.
Fletcher, M. and Wilson, D.A. Experience modifies olfactory acuity: ACh-dependent learning decreases behavioral generalization between similar odorants. Journal of Neuroscience, 2002, 22:RC201(1-5).
Fletcher, M.L., Smith, A.M., Best, A.R. and Wilson, D.A. High frequency oscillations are not necessary for simple olfactory discriminations in young rats. Journal of Neuroscience, 2005, 25:792-798. (Highlighted in “This Week in the Journal”).
Kadohisa, M. and Wilson, D.A. Olfactory cortical adaptation facilitates detection of odors against background. Journal of Neurophysiology, 2006, 95:1888-1896.
Kadohisa, M. and Wilson, D.A. Separate encoding of identity and similarity of complex familiar odors in piriform cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 2006, 103:15206-15211.
(Commentary: Leon, M. and Johnson, B. Functional units in the olfactory system. PNAS, 103:14985-14986.)
Linster, C. Henry, L., Kadohisa, M. and Wilson, D.A. Synaptic adaptation and odor-background segmentation. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 2007, 87:352-360.
Rennaker, R.L., Chen, C.-F. F, Ruyle, A., Sloan, A.M. and Wilson, D.A. Spatial and temporal distribution of odorant-evoked activity in the piriform cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 2007, 27:1534-1542.
Last update 04/07