Topic: odor processing

In insects, Olfactory Receptor Neurons ('ORNs') are grouped together into sensory hairs ('sensilla') in a stereotypical manner. Grouped ORNs: (i) antagonistically regulate the same behaviors, (ii) mutually inhibit each other via electrical interactions, and (iii) have a systematic size-asymmetry, resulting in asymmetric inhibitory interactions. The functional significance of this highly conserved organization is not known. We constructed a phenomenological model of nonlinearly coupled ORNs, which shows that inhibition between ORNs transiently amplifies the hedonic value ('valence') of an odor