preview

Wachowiak Observation Report

Decent Essays

On Tuesday, January 30th, Matt Wachowiak from Yale University gave a seminar on functional imaging of the olfactory bulb in mice. He uses a fluorescent calcium-sensitive dye to label the receptor neurons in the nose; the dye is then transported to the terminals of those neurons in the olfactory bulb. All of the receptor neurons that express receptors for a certain type of odor molecule send their axons to the same localized structure within the olfactory bulb, called a glomerulus. By removing the skin and bone above the olfactory bulb, he can use a sensitive camera to record real-time changes in fluorescence in particular glomeruli that correspond to activation of different receptor neuron types in response to different odors. Dr. Wachowiak began these studies in turtles, …show more content…

Although an individual glomerulus may be activated by several odors, the relative levels of activation of several glomeruli differ between odorants. As the concentration of the odorant increases, more glomeruli are recruited to respond; however, the relative pattern of activation is usually maintained for each odorant. Dr. Wachowiak also showed that there is a topographical map in the olfactory bulb such that odorants belonging to a certain class of molecules tend to activate glomeruli in the same area of the bulb, and this map is consistent across animals. Thus, it is possible to study the response to many odor molecules in a large number of animals and collapse the data across subjects to obtain more statistical power. In conclusion, this is an interesting technique that can be used to understand the detailed mechanisms of first-order olfactory perception in live animals. Dr. Wachowiak hopes to continue this research by conducting psychophysical experiments to determine how well the mice discriminate between odors, using genetically encoded probes of neural activity to selectively image certain populations of glomeruli, and studying further steps of processing within the

Get Access