Menini A, Picco C, Firestein S
Istituto di Cibernetica e Biofisica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Genova, Italy.
Nature. 1995 Feb 2;373(6513):435-7. doi: 10.1038/373435a0.
Many sensory systems have evolved signal detection capabilities that are limited only by the physical attributes of the stimulus. For example, 'hair' cells of the inner ear can detect displacements of atomic dimensions. Likewise, both in vertebrates and in invertebrates photoreceptors can detect a single photon. The olfactory stimulus also has a quantal unit, the single odorant molecule. Insects are reportedly able to detect a single pheromone molecule, whereas quantal responses in vertebrate olfactory receptor cells have not been reported yet. Psychophysical measurements indicate that a minimum of 50 odorant molecules are necessary for human olfactory detection, suggesting that an individual receptor may be activated by a single odorant molecule. We report here measurements of current fluctuations induced by odorants that suggest a quantal event of about 0.3-1 pA, presumably triggered by the binding of a single odorant molecule.
许多感觉系统已经进化出信号检测能力，这种能力仅受刺激的物理属性限制。例如，内耳的“毛”细胞能够检测到原子尺寸的位移。同样，无论是在脊椎动物还是无脊椎动物中，光感受器都能检测到单个光子。嗅觉刺激也有一个量子单位，即单个气味分子。据报道，昆虫能够检测到单个信息素分子，而脊椎动物嗅觉受体细胞中的量子反应尚未见报道。心理物理学测量表明，人类嗅觉检测至少需要50个气味分子，这表明单个受体可能被单个气味分子激活。我们在此报告了由气味剂引起的电流波动测量结果，这些结果表明大约0.3 - 1 pA的量子事件，可能是由单个气味分子的结合触发的。
