Organization of Inhibition in the Olfactory Bulb
Key to understanding how the brain processes incoming olfactory signals is understanding how synaptic inhibition in the olfactory bulb shapes patterns of receptor neuron input. We use imaging to directly visualize how odors both excite and inhibit olfactory bulb output and to map the spatial organization of this inhibition across the olfactory bulb. By targeting optical activity reporters to different neuron types, we are characterizing how different parts of the olfactory bulb circuit are activated during odor sampling, with the goal of forming a complete picture of how incoming odor information is processed by this first neural circuit and how this processing changes during behavior. We also are taking computational and neural modeling approaches to understand the organization of olfactory bulb circuits, in collaboration with Alla Borisyuk at the University of Utah.
Relevant Publications
Zavitz D, Youngstrom IA, Borisyuk A, Wachowiak M. Effect of Interglomerular Inhibitory Networks on Olfactory Bulb Odor Representations. J Neurosci. 2020 Jul 29;40(31):5954-5969. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0233-20.2020. Epub 2020 Jun 19. PubMed PMID: 32561671; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7392506.
Carey RM, Sherwood WE, Shipley MT, Borisyuk A, Wachowiak M (2015) Role of intraglomerular circuits in shaping temporally structured responses to naturalistic inhalation-driven sensory input to the olfactory bulb. J Neurophysiol:jn 00394 02014.
Economo MN, Hansen KR, Wachowiak M. Control of Mitral/Tufted Cell Output by Selective Inhibition among Olfactory Bulb Glomeruli. Neuron. 2016 Jul 20;91(2):397-411. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.06.001. Epub 2016 Jun 23. PubMed PMID: 27346531; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6474342.
Wachowiak M, Economo MN, Díaz-Quesada M, Brunert D, Wesson DW, White JA, Rothermel M (2013) Optical Dissection of Odor Information Processing In Vivo Using GCaMPs Expressed in Specified Cell Types of the Olfactory Bulb. The Journal of Neuroscience 33:5285-5300.
