Journal
EUROPEAN BIOPHYSICS JOURNAL WITH BIOPHYSICS LETTERS
Volume 33, Issue 7, Pages 633-643Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00249-004-0405-4
Keywords
intensity coding; neuron modelling; olfactory receptor neuron; receptor potential; sensillum
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Insect olfactory receptor neurons are compartmentalized in sensilla. In a sensillum, typically two receptor neurons are in close contact and can influence each other through electrical interaction during stimulation. This interaction is passive, non-synaptic and a consequence of the electrical structure of the sensillum. It is analysed in a sensillum model and its effects on the neuron receptor potentials are investigated. The neurons in a sensillum can be both sensitive to a given odorant compound with the same sensory threshold or with different thresholds, or only one neuron be sensitive to the odorant. These three types of sensilla are compared with respect to maximum amplitude, threshold and dynamic range of the potentials. It is found that gathering neurons in the same sensillum is disadvantageous if they are identical, but can be advantageous if their thresholds differ. Application of these results to actual recordings from pheromone and food-odour olfactory sensilla is discussed.
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