Grupo de Neurocomputación Biológica, Dpto. de Ingeniería Informática, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
PLoS One. 2013 Apr 8;8(4):e60745. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060745. Print 2013.
Early olfactory deprivation in rodents is accompanied by an homeostatic regulation of the synaptic connectivity in the olfactory bulb (OB). However, its consequences in the neural sensitivity and discrimination have not been elucidated. We compared the odorant sensitivity and discrimination in early sensory deprived and normal OBs in anesthetized rats. We show that the deprived OB exhibits an increased sensitivity to different odorants when compared to the normal OB. Our results indicate that early olfactory stimulation enhances discriminability of the olfactory stimuli. We found that deprived olfactory bulbs adjusts the overall excitatory and inhibitory mitral cells (MCs) responses to odorants but the receptive fields become wider than in the normal olfactory bulbs. Taken together, these results suggest that an early natural sensory stimulation sharpens the receptor fields resulting in a larger discrimination capability. These results are consistent with previous evidence that a varied experience with odorants modulates the OB's synaptic connections and increases MCs selectivity.
早期啮齿动物嗅觉剥夺会导致嗅球（OB）中的突触连接进行稳态调节。然而，其对神经敏感性和辨别力的影响尚未阐明。我们在麻醉大鼠中比较了早期感觉剥夺和正常 OB 中的气味敏感性和辨别力。我们表明，与正常 OB 相比，剥夺 OB 对不同气味具有更高的敏感性。我们的结果表明，早期嗅觉刺激可增强嗅觉刺激的辨别力。我们发现，剥夺的嗅球会调整对气味的整体兴奋性和抑制性僧帽细胞（MC）的反应，但感受野比正常嗅球更宽。总之，这些结果表明，早期的自然感觉刺激会使受体区域变得更加敏锐，从而提高辨别能力。这些结果与先前的证据一致，即与气味的多样化体验会调节 OB 的突触连接并增加 MC 的选择性。
