IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v594y2021i7864d10.1038_s41586-021-03628-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Representational drift in primary olfactory cortex

Author

Listed:
  • Carl E. Schoonover

    (Columbia University)

  • Sarah N. Ohashi

    (Columbia University
    Yale School of Medicine)

  • Richard Axel

    (Columbia University)

  • Andrew J. P. Fink

    (Columbia University)

Abstract

Perceptual constancy requires the brain to maintain a stable representation of sensory input. In the olfactory system, activity in primary olfactory cortex (piriform cortex) is thought to determine odour identity1–5. Here we present the results of electrophysiological recordings of single units maintained over weeks to examine the stability of odour-evoked responses in mouse piriform cortex. Although activity in piriform cortex could be used to discriminate between odorants at any moment in time, odour-evoked responses drifted over periods of days to weeks. The performance of a linear classifier trained on the first recording day approached chance levels after 32 days. Fear conditioning did not stabilize odour-evoked responses. Daily exposure to the same odorant slowed the rate of drift, but when exposure was halted the rate increased again. This demonstration of continuous drift poses the question of the role of piriform cortex in odour perception. This instability might reflect the unstructured connectivity of piriform cortex6–12, and may be a property of other unstructured cortices.

Suggested Citation

  • Carl E. Schoonover & Sarah N. Ohashi & Richard Axel & Andrew J. P. Fink, 2021. "Representational drift in primary olfactory cortex," Nature, Nature, vol. 594(7864), pages 541-546, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:594:y:2021:i:7864:d:10.1038_s41586-021-03628-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03628-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03628-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-021-03628-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luis M. Franco & Michael J. Goard, 2024. "Differential stability of task variable representations in retrosplenial cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Hannah Muysers & Hung-Ling Chen & Johannes Hahn & Shani Folschweiller & Torfi Sigurdsson & Jonas-Frederic Sauer & Marlene Bartos, 2024. "A persistent prefrontal reference frame across time and task rules," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Tansel Baran Yasar & Peter Gombkoto & Alexei L. Vyssotski & Angeliki D. Vavladeli & Christopher M. Lewis & Bifeng Wu & Linus Meienberg & Valter Lundegardh & Fritjof Helmchen & Wolfger von der Behrens , 2024. "Months-long tracking of neuronal ensembles spanning multiple brain areas with Ultra-Flexible Tentacle Electrodes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    4. Geoffrey Terral & Evan Harrell & Gabriel Lepousez & Yohan Wards & Dinghuang Huang & Tiphaine Dolique & Giulio Casali & Antoine Nissant & Pierre-Marie Lledo & Guillaume Ferreira & Giovanni Marsicano & , 2024. "Endogenous cannabinoids in the piriform cortex tune olfactory perception," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    5. Han Chin Wang & Amy M. LeMessurier & Daniel E. Feldman, 2022. "Tuning instability of non-columnar neurons in the salt-and-pepper whisker map in somatosensory cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, December.
    6. Ravi Pancholi & Lauren Ryan & Simon Peron, 2023. "Learning in a sensory cortical microstimulation task is associated with elevated representational stability," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Alexandra T. Keinath & Coralie-Anne Mosser & Mark P. Brandon, 2022. "The representation of context in mouse hippocampus is preserved despite neural drift," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Noel Federman & Sebastián A. Romano & Macarena Amigo-Duran & Lucca Salomon & Antonia Marin-Burgin, 2024. "Acquisition of non-olfactory encoding improves odour discrimination in olfactory cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-19, December.
    9. P. Dylan Rich & Stephan Yves Thiberge & Benjamin B. Scott & Caiying Guo & D. Gowanlock R. Tervo & Carlos D. Brody & Alla Y. Karpova & Nathaniel D. Daw & David W. Tank, 2024. "Magnetic voluntary head-fixation in transgenic rats enables lifespan imaging of hippocampal neurons," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:594:y:2021:i:7864:d:10.1038_s41586-021-03628-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.