Seminar · Computational Neuroscience
Shallow networks run deep: How peripheral preprocessing facilitates odor classification
Yonatan Aljadeff · University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
Wed, Nov 9, 2022 · 05:00 UTC
Drosophila olfactory sensory hairs ("sensilla") typically house two olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) which can laterally inhibit each other via electrical ("ephaptic") coupling. ORN pairing is highly stereotyped and genetically determined. Thus, olfactory signals arriving in the Antennal Lobe (AL) have been pre-processed by a fixed and shallow network at the periphery. To uncover the functional significance of this organization, we developed a nonlinear phenomenological model of asymmetrically coupled ORNs responding to odor mixture stimuli. We derived an analytical solution to the ORNs’ dyna