About this Research Topic
The intricate connectivity of the olfactory circuits is further complicated by morphological and functional changes occurring during development, and poses the need for a systemic approach to advance the comprehension of how this chemical sense is organized.
Indeed, each olfactory sub-system shows a high degree of neuronal plasticity both in the peripheral organs where new neurons differentiate throughout life, and in the first processing unit, the olfactory bulb, where new cells are added by differentiating progenitors migrating from germinative layers lining the lateral ventricles. In addition, the connectivity between the sensory neurons and olfactory bulb is highly sensitive to olfactory sensory activity, posing the important question – still unanswered - of how this sensory system maintains a reliable and stable encoding of sensory information.
Within this Research Topic, we plan to collect updated hints on the functions of the various chemosensory subsystems, their integration, and the role of structural and functional plasticity to achieve the final chemosensory perception in the attempt to fill this gap of knowledge.
To achieve this target, we will encourage a series of colleagues which explore many different areas of chemosensory processing in different physiological conditions, by using a variety of techniques, from electrophysiology to anatomy and behavior. We’ll aim to elucidate the common mechanisms underlying chemosensory processing – a kind of comparison that may be interesting for both neurobiologists and engineers which aim at implementing artificial biomimetic chemosensory units.
Keywords: Olfaction, Neurogenesis, Plasticity, Sensory processing
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