Whitlock Kathleen E
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, 445 Biotechnology Building, Ithaca, New York 14850, USA.
Zebrafish. 2006;3(2):203-13. doi: 10.1089/zeb.2006.3.203.
The olfactory sensory system is perhaps the most intriguing of the sensory systems making up the peripheral nervous system. Understanding how olfactory sensory stimuli result in behaviors relevant to the animal is made complicated by the fact that olfactory stimuli are more difficult to quantify than light and sound stimuli. Furthermore, in all vertebrates the olfactory sensory neurons regenerate throughout life, presenting a fascinating problem of how both the functional repertoire of olfactory sensory neurons and fidelity of connections to the central nervous system are maintained. Olfactory behaviors are crucial for feeding and reproduction and the olfactory information essential to these behaviors appears to be processed separately in distinct regions of the central nervous system. Zebrafish represent an excellent model system in which the strength of genetics and development can be combined with neuroethological techniques to unravel the mechanisms underlying olfactory behaviors in vertebrate animals.
嗅觉感觉系统或许是构成周围神经系统的感觉系统中最引人入胜的。嗅觉刺激比光和声音刺激更难量化，这一事实使得理解嗅觉感觉刺激如何引发与动物相关的行为变得复杂。此外，在所有脊椎动物中，嗅觉感觉神经元终生都在再生，这就引出了一个迷人的问题：嗅觉感觉神经元的功能库以及与中枢神经系统连接的保真度是如何维持的。嗅觉行为对于进食和繁殖至关重要，而这些行为所必需的嗅觉信息似乎在中枢神经系统的不同区域分别进行处理。斑马鱼是一个出色的模型系统，在其中遗传学和发育学的优势可以与神经行为学技术相结合，以揭示脊椎动物嗅觉行为背后的机制。
