Rising background odor concentration reduces sensitivity of ON and OFF olfactory receptor neurons for changes in concentration
The ON and OFF ORNs on cockroach antennae optimize the detection and transfer of information about concentration increments and decrements by providing excitatory responses for both. It follows that the antagonism of the responses facilitates instantaneous evaluations of the odor plume to help the i...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2016-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Physiology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fphys.2016.00063/full |
| _version_ | 1819267759275507712 |
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| author | Maria eHellwig Harald eTichy |
| author_facet | Maria eHellwig Harald eTichy |
| author_sort | Maria eHellwig |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The ON and OFF ORNs on cockroach antennae optimize the detection and transfer of information about concentration increments and decrements by providing excitatory responses for both. It follows that the antagonism of the responses facilitates instantaneous evaluations of the odor plume to help the insect make tracking decisions by signaling higher concentra-tion than background and lower concentration than background. Here we analyzed the effect of the background concentration level of the odor of lemon oil on the responses of the ON and OFF ORNs to jumps and drops of that odor, respectively. Raising the background level decreases both the ON-ORN’s response to concentration jumps and the OFF-ORN’s response to concentration drops. Impulse frequency of the ON ORN is high when the concen-tration jump is large, but for a given jump, frequency tends to be higher when the background level is low. Conversely, impulse frequency of the OFF cell is high at large concentration drops, but higher still when the background level is low. Analyses of this double dependence revealed that the activity of both types of ORNs is raised more by increasing the change in concentration than by decreasing the background concentration by the same amount. This effect is greater in the OFF ORN than in the ON ORN, indicating a bias for falling concentra-tions. Given equal change in concentration, concentration drops evoke stronger responses in the OFF ORN than concentrations jumps in the ON ORN. This suggests that the OFF re-sponses are used as alert information for accurately tracking. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T21:22:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fff5eed5935e4b6c97315d5607e02227 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-042X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T21:22:16Z |
| publishDate | 2016-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Physiology |
| spelling | doaj.art-fff5eed5935e4b6c97315d5607e022272022-12-21T17:30:43ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Physiology1664-042X2016-03-01710.3389/fphys.2016.00063179540Rising background odor concentration reduces sensitivity of ON and OFF olfactory receptor neurons for changes in concentrationMaria eHellwig0Harald eTichy1University ViennaUniversity ViennaThe ON and OFF ORNs on cockroach antennae optimize the detection and transfer of information about concentration increments and decrements by providing excitatory responses for both. It follows that the antagonism of the responses facilitates instantaneous evaluations of the odor plume to help the insect make tracking decisions by signaling higher concentra-tion than background and lower concentration than background. Here we analyzed the effect of the background concentration level of the odor of lemon oil on the responses of the ON and OFF ORNs to jumps and drops of that odor, respectively. Raising the background level decreases both the ON-ORN’s response to concentration jumps and the OFF-ORN’s response to concentration drops. Impulse frequency of the ON ORN is high when the concen-tration jump is large, but for a given jump, frequency tends to be higher when the background level is low. Conversely, impulse frequency of the OFF cell is high at large concentration drops, but higher still when the background level is low. Analyses of this double dependence revealed that the activity of both types of ORNs is raised more by increasing the change in concentration than by decreasing the background concentration by the same amount. This effect is greater in the OFF ORN than in the ON ORN, indicating a bias for falling concentra-tions. Given equal change in concentration, concentration drops evoke stronger responses in the OFF ORN than concentrations jumps in the ON ORN. This suggests that the OFF re-sponses are used as alert information for accurately tracking.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fphys.2016.00063/fullodor concentration codingON and OFF responsesasymmetric sensitivitieseffect of background concentrationgain of responses |
| spellingShingle | Maria eHellwig Harald eTichy Rising background odor concentration reduces sensitivity of ON and OFF olfactory receptor neurons for changes in concentration Frontiers in Physiology odor concentration coding ON and OFF responses asymmetric sensitivities effect of background concentration gain of responses |
| title | Rising background odor concentration reduces sensitivity of ON and OFF olfactory receptor neurons for changes in concentration |
| title_full | Rising background odor concentration reduces sensitivity of ON and OFF olfactory receptor neurons for changes in concentration |
| title_fullStr | Rising background odor concentration reduces sensitivity of ON and OFF olfactory receptor neurons for changes in concentration |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rising background odor concentration reduces sensitivity of ON and OFF olfactory receptor neurons for changes in concentration |
| title_short | Rising background odor concentration reduces sensitivity of ON and OFF olfactory receptor neurons for changes in concentration |
| title_sort | rising background odor concentration reduces sensitivity of on and off olfactory receptor neurons for changes in concentration |
| topic | odor concentration coding ON and OFF responses asymmetric sensitivities effect of background concentration gain of responses |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fphys.2016.00063/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mariaehellwig risingbackgroundodorconcentrationreducessensitivityofonandoffolfactoryreceptorneuronsforchangesinconcentration AT haraldetichy risingbackgroundodorconcentrationreducessensitivityofonandoffolfactoryreceptorneuronsforchangesinconcentration |