Topographic organization of sensory projections to the olfactory bulb. uri icon

abstract

  • The detection of odorant receptor mRNAs within the axon terminals of sensory neurons has permitted us to ask whether neurons expressing a given receptor project their axons to common glomeruli within the olfactory bulb. In situ hybridization with five different receptor probes demonstrates that axons from neurons expressing a given receptor converge on one, or at most, a few glomeruli within the olfactory bulb. Moreover, the position of specific glomeruli is bilaterally symmetric and is constant in different individuals within a species. These data support a model in which exposure to a given odorant may result in the stimulation of a spatially restricted set of glomeruli, such that the individual odorants would be associated with specific topographic patterns of activity within the olfactory bulb.

published proceedings

  • Cell

altmetric score

  • 12

author list (cited authors)

  • Vassar, R., Chao, S. K., Sitcheran, R., Nuez, J. M., Vosshall, L. B., & Axel, R.

citation count

  • 1052

complete list of authors

  • Vassar, R||Chao, SK||Sitcheran, R||Nuñez, JM||Vosshall, LB||Axel, R

publication date

  • December 1994

published in