Olfactory cortex

Mapping and understanding the functional differences between neuron types is crucial for advancing our knowledge of neural circuits and brain function. However, classifying neuron types in vivo remains challenging due to the difficulty of collecting reliable labels and the complexity of deciphering how neuronal activity varies across different conditions and stimuli. Even when labeled data is available, it is often hard to identify subtle functional differences between neuron classes. To address these challenges, we introduce a novel spatiotemporal Transformer-based architecture that learns a

…functional approaches, we reveal that olfactory-driven activity propagates to a large part of the cortex during the first postnatal week, and enhances whisker-evoked activation of primary whisker somatosensory cortex (wS1). This effect disappears in adult mice, due to the loss of neonatal excitatory connectivity from olfactory cortex to wS1. By performing developmental olfactory-deprivation and

…brain injury (TBI) in a sensory cortex results in similar functional reorganization in spared sensory networks. We herein investigated global alterations in neuronal activity maps in the mouse brain subjected to a TBI in the visual cortex and delved into the underlying cellular mechanisms. Our data shows substantial differences in brain activity maps 2-3

…While the olfactory sense is critical to foraging, the role of the olfactory cortex in regulating food learning and preference is unclear. The anterior piriform cortex (APC) is located one synapse downstream of the olfactory bulb and is an important olfactory structure for odor discrimination, perception, and memory. Here, we investigated whether acute fasting in mice can alter an odor-guided foraging behavior and how it can alter neurons and synapses

The connectivity structure of many biological systems, including neural circuits, is highly non-uniform. Recent technologies allow detailed mapping of these irregularities, but our understanding of their effect on the overall circuit dynamics is still lacking. By developing complex system analytical tools that perform reduction of the network, I determine the impact of connectivity features on network dynamics. I will demonstrate the use of these tools on neural assemblies (clusters), a ubiquitous non-uniform structure in our brains. I will show how neural assemblies of different sizes natural

During behavior, sensation and action operate in closed-loop. Movements shape sensory input, and sensory inputs guide motor commands: where one looks determines what one sees. Through experience, the brain learns the reciprocal relationship between sensory inputs and movements to build internal models that accurately predict the sensory consequences of upcoming actions (sensorimotor predictions). This exchange of sensory inputs and egocentric expectations is at the core of active perception. Experimental investigation of this idea has been sparse and split between behavioral interrogation of s

…For example, in piriform cortex, which is commonly considered primary olfactory cortex, the cells responsive to a given odor are completely uncorrelated with those activated by the same odor two weeks later (Schoonover et al., 2021). This would seem to imply that piriform cortex, like other brain regions whose activity appears to drift, is useless for the retrieval of associative memories learned several weeks prior. Howeve

…the formation of ensembles in olfactory and orbitofrontal cortex. We have been focusing on the roles of three inhibitory neuron classes in gating excitatory synaptic plasticity in olfactory cortex- somatostatin (SST-INs), parvalbumin (PV-INs), and vasoactive intestin