Behavioural correlates of combinatorial versus temporal features of odour codes

Debajit Saha, Chao Li, Steven Peterson, William Padovano, Nalin Katta and Baranidharan Raman ()
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Debajit Saha: Washington University in St Louis
Chao Li: Washington University in St Louis
Steven Peterson: Washington University in St Louis
William Padovano: Washington University in St Louis
Nalin Katta: Washington University in St Louis
Baranidharan Raman: Washington University in St Louis

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Most sensory stimuli evoke spiking responses that are distributed across neurons and are temporally structured. Whether the temporal structure of ensemble activity is modulated to facilitate different neural computations is not known. Here, we investigated this issue in the insect olfactory system. We found that an odourant can generate synchronous or asynchronous spiking activity across a neural ensemble in the antennal lobe circuit depending on its relative novelty with respect to a preceding stimulus. Regardless of variations in temporal spiking patterns, the activated combinations of neurons robustly represented stimulus identity. Consistent with this interpretation, locusts reliably recognized both solitary and sequential introductions of trained odourants in a quantitative behavioural assay. However, predictable behavioural responses across locusts were observed only to novel stimuli that evoked synchronized spiking patterns across neural ensembles. Hence, our results indicate that the combinatorial ensemble response encodes for stimulus identity, whereas the temporal structure of the ensemble response selectively emphasizes novel stimuli.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7953

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