title: Differential odor processing in two olfactory pathways in the honeybee.
abstract: An important component in understanding central olfactory processing and coding in the insect brain relates to the characterization of the functional divisions between morphologically distinct types of projection neurons (PN). Using calcium imaging, we investigated how the identity, concentration and mixtures of odors are represented in axon terminals (boutons) of two types of PNs - lPN and mPN. In lPN boutons we found less concentration dependence, narrow tuning profiles at a high concentration, which may be optimized for fine, concentration-invariant odor discrimination. In mPN boutons, however, we found clear rising concentration dependence, broader tuning profiles at a high concentration, which may be optimized for concentration coding. In addition, we found more mixture suppression in lPNs than in mPNs, indicating lPNs better adaptation for synthetic mixture processing. These results suggest a functional division of odor processing in both PN types.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Neurobiologie, Freie Universität Berlin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Nobuhiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamagata
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmuker
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Szyszka
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mizunami
authors.forename: Randolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Menzel