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Olfaction: Overview

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

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Definition

Olfaction or the olfactory systems refer to the sense of smell.

Detailed Description

In natural environments, airborne chemical stimuli can occur unpredictably in time and space, and odorants from many sources intermix. The olfactory system of animals is capable of detecting stimuli of interest to the animal within these chemically noisy environments. To achieve this, the system has to extract relevant signals, compare the extracted stimulus to previously experienced odors, differentiate relevant from irrelevant stimuli, and cue an appropriate response. Many of the neural circuit elements comprising the olfactory system are thought to contribute to these processes. Computational models of olfactory processing have at the forefront of attributing function to experimentally described neurons and networks (Fig. 1).

Olfaction: Overview, Fig. 1
figure 19 figure 19

Schematic description of olfactory structures. The olfactory sensory neurons (OSN) expressing a common receptor converge onto the common...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computational Physiology Lab, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Christiane Linster

Authors
  1. Christiane Linster
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christiane Linster .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Ranu Jung

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Linster, C. (2015). Olfaction: Overview. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6675-8_786

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