Zou Z, Horowitz L F, Montmayeur J P, Snapper S, Buck L B
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Nature. 2001 Nov 8;414(6860):173-9. doi: 10.1038/35102506.
The olfactory system translates myriad chemical structures into diverse odour perceptions. To gain insight into how this is accomplished, we prepared mice that coexpressed a transneuronal tracer with only one of about 1,000 different odorant receptors. The tracer travelled from nasal neurons expressing that receptor to the olfactory bulb and then to the olfactory cortex, allowing visualization of cortical neurons that receive input from a particular odorant receptor. These studies revealed a stereotyped sensory map in the olfactory cortex in which signals from a particular receptor are targeted to specific clusters of neurons. Inputs from different receptors overlap spatially and could be combined in single neurons, potentially allowing for an integration of the components of an odorant's combinatorial receptor code. Signals from the same receptor are targeted to multiple olfactory cortical areas, permitting the parallel, and perhaps differential, processing of inputs from a single receptor before delivery to the neocortex and limbic system.
嗅觉系统将无数种化学结构转化为多样的气味感知。为深入了解这一过程是如何实现的，我们制备了共表达跨神经元示踪剂的小鼠，这些示踪剂仅与约1000种不同气味受体中的一种共同表达。示踪剂从表达该受体的鼻神经元传至嗅球，再到嗅觉皮层，从而能够可视化接收来自特定气味受体输入的皮层神经元。这些研究揭示了嗅觉皮层中一种刻板的感觉图谱，其中来自特定受体的信号靶向特定的神经元簇。来自不同受体的输入在空间上重叠，并且可以在单个神经元中合并，这可能允许对气味剂组合受体编码的成分进行整合。来自同一受体的信号靶向多个嗅觉皮层区域，从而在将输入传递至新皮层和边缘系统之前，允许对来自单个受体的输入进行并行且可能不同的处理。
