Drosophila genetics and behavior reveal that oxidative stress induced axonal degeneration in a single class of neurons drives the functional decline of an entire neural network and the behavior it controls.
Variations in the frequency of theta brain waves enable a single network of brain regions to generate appropriate responses to stimuli with different kinds of emotional value.
A series of quantitative behavioural and opto-physiological analyses using a novel robot microscope system reveals that C. elegans computes the time-differential and time-integral of sensory information for decision-making during olfactory navigation.
Associative learning, but not passive odorant exposure, induces a novel long lasting functional plasticity in the periphery of mouse olfactory system, making previously encountered odors easier to detect in the future.
A genome-organizing protein that is present only in the olfactory system of mice has been found to orchestrate changes in the relative numbers of different odor-sensing neurons on the basis of how active these neurons are.
Sensory neurons in the olfactory system develop from two different regions of the ectoderm, the olfactory placode and the cranial neural crest, whereas sensory neurons within the eye and ear develop from just one region.
Neurons in the fruit fly olfactory system respond most strongly to the sudden appearance of an odor, and to odors that are changing rapidly in strength, but are relatively insensitive to the absolute levels of an odor.
Pharmacological fMRI reveals that associative connections contribute to odor categorization by supporting discrimination and generalization at different stages of the human olfactory system.
