Strong, weak and neuron type dependent lateral inhibition in the olfactory bulb

Ronit Shmuel, Lavi Secundo, Rafi Haddad

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

In many sensory systems, different sensory features are transmitted in parallel by several different types of output neurons. In the mouse olfactory bulb, there are only two output neuron types, the mitral and tufted cells (M/T), which receive similar odor inputs, but they are believed to transmit different odor characteristics. How these two neuron types deliver different odor information is unclear. Here, by combining electrophysiology and optogenetics, it is shown that distinct inhibitory networks modulate M/T cell responses differently. Overall strong lateral inhibition was scarce, with most neurons receiving lateral inhibition from a handful of unorganized surrounding glomeruli (~5% on average). However, there was a considerable variability between different neuron types in the strength and frequency of lateral inhibition. Strong lateral inhibition was mostly found in neurons locked to the first half of the respiration cycle. In contrast, weak inhibition arriving from many surrounding glomeruli was relatively more common in neurons locked to the late phase of the respiration cycle. Proximal neurons could receive different levels of inhibition. These results suggest that there is considerable diversity in the way M/T cells process odors so that even neurons that receive the same odor input transmit different odor information to the cortex.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1602
JournalScientific Reports
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 7 Feb 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).

Funding

We thank Dan Rokni and Noam Sobel for their comments on the manuscript. We thank Mark Grobman and Ofer Perl for their excellent technical assistance. This work was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation within the ISF-UGC joint research program and from the I-CORE Program of the Planning and Budgeting Committee [2307/15 and 51/11].

FundersFunder number
ISF-UGC
Israel Science Foundation
Israeli Centers for Research Excellence51/11, 2307/15

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