Experience-dependent tuning of the olfactory system

Insects rely on their sense of smell to navigate complex reproduction. However, in natural settings, the odors that convey this information may come mixed with environmental odors that can obscure their perception. Therefore, recognizing the presence of informative odors involves generalization and discrimination processes, which can be facilitated when there is a high contrast between stimuli, or the internal representation of the odors of interest outcompetes that of concurrent ones. The first two layers of the olfactory system, which involve the detection of odorants by olfactory receptor neurons and their encoding by the first postsynaptic partners in the antennal lobe, are critical for achieving such optimal representation. In this review, we summarize evidence indicating that experiencedependent changes adjust these two levels of the olfactory system. These changes are discussed in the context of the advantages they provide for detection of informative odors.

Automated summary

Insects rely on their sense of smell to perceive informative odors for reproduction, but these odors may be mixed with environmental odors that can disrupt their perception. The first two layers of the olfactory system play a critical role in optimizing the representation of the odors of interest, and experiencedependent changes affect these two layers.