Stereo olfaction underlies stable coding of head direction in blind mice
Kadjita Asumbisa,
Adrien Peyrache and
Stuart Trenholm ()
Additional contact information
Kadjita Asumbisa: McGill University
Adrien Peyrache: McGill University
Stuart Trenholm: McGill University
Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-9
Abstract:
Abstract Stereo olfaction, the difference in odor concentration between the two nostrils, has been shown to affect a variety of animal behaviors, including olfactory search. However, it is unknown whether stereo olfaction can enable the formation of allocentric spatial representations. Here, recording from head direction (HD) cells in the anterior dorsal nucleus of the thalamus in blind mice—a model system for studying olfaction-dependent allocentric spatial representations—we find that inhibiting stereo olfaction, by blocking olfactory processing in one nostril or merging the airflow going to both nostrils, drastically impairs head direction coding. To assess the behavioral impact of impaired HD cell tuning caused by loss of stereo olfaction, we developed a closed-loop head direction preference assay, in which a mouse received medial forebrain bundle reward stimulation upon orientating its head in a specific direction. We find that inhibiting stereo olfaction significantly impairs performance in the HD preference assay. These results reveal that stereo olfaction is required for mice to use smell to form a stable allocentric spatial representation of head direction.
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58847-7 Abstract (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58847-7
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58847-7
Access Statistics for this article
Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie
More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().