ABOVE: Olfactory bulb of an adult mouse
WIKIMEDIA, MATT VALLEY
By activating a particular pattern of nerve endings in the brain’s olfactory bulb, researchers can make mice smell a non-existent odor, according to a paper published today (June 18) in Science. Manipulating these activity patterns reveals which aspects are important for odor recognition.
“This study is a beautiful example of the use of synthetic stimuli . . . to probe the workings of the brain in a way that is just not possible currently with natural stimuli,” neuroscientist Venkatesh Murthy of Harvard University who was not involved with the study writes in an email to The Scientist.
A fundamental goal of neuroscience is to understand how a stimulus—a sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell—is interpreted, or perceived, by the brain. While a large number of studies have shown the various ways in which such stimuli activate brain cells, very little is ...
