Need for Related Multipronged Approaches toUnderstand Olfactory Bulb Signal Processing

摘要

Recent work from our laboratory in awake behaving animals shows that olfactory bulbprocessing changes depending profoundly on behavioral context. Thus, we find thatwhen recording from the olfactory bulb in a mouse during a go—no go associationlearning task, it is not unusual to find a mitral cell that initially does not respond tothe rewarded or unrewarded odors but develops a differential response to the stimuliduring the learning session. This places a challenge on how to approach understanding -of olfactory bulb processing, because neural interactions differ depending on the statusof the animal. Here we address the question of how the different approaches to studyolfactory bulb neuron responses, including studies in anesthetized and unanesthetizedanimals in vivo and recordings in slices, complement each other. We conclude that morecritical understanding of the relationship between the measurements in the differentpreparations is necessary for future advances in the understanding of olfactory bulbprocessing of odor information.