Department of Chemosensation, Institute for Biology II, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
Department of Medical Neurobiology, School of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Chem Senses. 2018 Nov 1;43(9):667-695. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjy061.
In many mammalian species, the accessory olfactory system plays a central role in guiding behavioral and physiological responses to social and reproductive interactions. Because of its relatively compact structure and its direct access to amygdalar and hypothalamic nuclei, the accessory olfactory pathway provides an ideal system to study sensory control of complex mammalian behavior. During the last several years, many studies employing molecular, behavioral, and physiological approaches have significantly expanded and enhanced our understanding of this system. The purpose of the current review is to integrate older and newer studies to present an updated and comprehensive picture of vomeronasal signaling and coding with an emphasis on early accessory olfactory system processing stages. These include vomeronasal sensory neurons in the vomeronasal organ, and the circuitry of the accessory olfactory bulb. Because the overwhelming majority of studies on accessory olfactory system function employ rodents, this review is largely focused on this phylogenetic order, and on mice in particular. Taken together, the emerging view from both older literature and more recent studies is that the molecular, cellular, and circuit properties of chemosensory signaling along the accessory olfactory pathway are in many ways unique. Yet, it has also become evident that, like the main olfactory system, the accessory olfactory system also has the capacity for adaptive learning, experience, and state-dependent plasticity. In addition to describing what is currently known about accessory olfactory system function and physiology, we highlight what we believe are important gaps in our knowledge, which thus define exciting directions for future investigation.
在许多哺乳动物物种中，副嗅觉系统在指导对社交和生殖相互作用的行为和生理反应方面起着核心作用。由于其相对紧凑的结构及其对杏仁核和下丘脑核的直接访问，副嗅觉途径提供了研究复杂哺乳动物行为的感官控制的理想系统。在过去的几年中，许多采用分子、行为和生理方法的研究极大地扩展和增强了我们对该系统的理解。目前评论的目的是整合较旧和较新的研究，以呈现更新和全面的信息关于副嗅觉信号和编码，重点介绍早期副嗅觉系统处理阶段。这些包括在犁鼻器中的犁鼻感觉神经元，以及副嗅球的电路。由于绝大多数关于副嗅觉系统功能的研究都使用啮齿动物，因此本综述主要集中在这个进化顺序上，特别是在老鼠上。总的来说，来自较旧文献和最近研究的新兴观点是，沿着副嗅觉途径的化学感觉信号的分子、细胞和电路特性在许多方面都是独特的。然而，也很明显，像主要嗅觉系统一样，副嗅觉系统也具有适应性学习、经验和状态依赖可塑性的能力。除了描述我们目前对副嗅觉系统功能和生理学的了解之外，我们还强调了我们认为在我们的知识中存在的重要差距，这因此定义了未来研究的令人兴奋的方向。
