title: The olfactory tubercle encodes odor valence in behaving mice.
abstract: Sensory information acquires meaning to adaptively guide behaviors. Despite odors mediating a number of vital behaviors, the components of the olfactory system responsible for assigning meaning to odors remain unclear. The olfactory tubercle (OT), a ventral striatum structure that receives monosynaptic input from the olfactory bulb, is uniquely positioned to transform odor information into behaviorally relevant neural codes. No information is available, however, on the coding of odors among OT neurons in behaving animals. In recordings from mice engaged in an odor discrimination task, we report that the firing rate of OT neurons robustly and flexibly encodes the valence of conditioned odors over identity, with rewarded odors evoking greater firing rates. This coding of rewarded odors occurs before behavioral decisions and represents subsequent behavioral responses. We predict that the OT is an essential region whereby odor valence is encoded in the mammalian brain to guide goal-directed behaviors.
authors: Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, and.
authors: Marie A
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2435-8157
authors: MA
authors: Gadziola
authors: Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106.
authors: Kate A
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0960-4674
authors: KA
authors: Tylicki
authors: Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, and.
authors: Diana L
authors: DL
authors: Christian
authors: Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, and Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106 dww53@case.edu.
authors: Daniel W
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3192-3866
authors: DW
authors: Wesson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009812:Odorants; D066208:Olfactory Tubercle / Q000502:physiology*; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D066328:Ventral Striatum / Q000502:physiology
keywords: associative learning; odor discrimination; olfaction; olfactory cortex; sensory coding