Laurent G
California Institute of Technology, Biology Division, Pasadena 91125, USA.
Trends Neurosci. 1996 Nov;19(11):489-96. doi: 10.1016/S0166-2236(96)10054-0.
Although smells are some of the most evocative and emotionally charged sensory inputs known to us, we still understand relatively little about olfactory processing and odor representation in the brain. This review summarizes physiological results obtained from an insect olfactory system and presents a functional scheme for odor coding that is compatible with data from other animals, including mammals. This coding scheme consists of three main and concurrent odor-induced phenomena: 20-30 Hz oscillatory mass activity; patterned and odor-specific neuronal responses; and transient, dynamic synchronization of odor-specific neural assemblies. When these phenomena are considered together, odors appear to be represented combinatorially by dynamical neural assemblies, defined partly by the transient but stimulus-specific synchronization of their neuronal components.
尽管气味是我们所知的最能唤起情感且情感负荷极高的感官输入之一，但我们对大脑中的嗅觉处理和气味表征仍知之甚少。本综述总结了从昆虫嗅觉系统获得的生理学结果，并提出了一种与包括哺乳动物在内的其他动物的数据相兼容的气味编码功能方案。这种编码方案由三种主要且同时发生的气味诱导现象组成：20 - 30赫兹的振荡性群体活动；有模式的、特定于气味的神经元反应；以及特定于气味的神经集合的瞬态、动态同步。当综合考虑这些现象时，气味似乎由动态神经集合以组合方式表征，部分由其神经元成分的瞬态但特定于刺激的同步来定义。
