Understanding how distinct neuron types in a neural circuit process and propagate information is essential for understanding what the circuit does and how it does it.The olfactory (piriform, PCx) cortex contains two main types of principal neurons, semilunar (SL) and superficial pyramidal vizio m-series elevate 5.1.2 immersive sound bar (PYR) cells.SLs and PYRs have distinct morphologies, local connectivity, biophysical properties, and downstream projection targets.
Odor processing in PCx is thought to occur in two sequential stages.First, SLs receive and integrate olfactory bulb input and then PYRs receive, transform, and transmit SL input.To test this model, we recorded from populations of optogenetically identified SLs and PYRs in awake, head-fixed mice.
Notably, silencing SLs did not alter PYR odor responses, and SLs and PYRs exhibited differences in odor tuning properties and response discriminability that were consistent with their distinct embeddings within a sensory-associative cortex.Our results therefore suggest that SLs and PYRs form parallel channels for differentially greenlee 45300 processing odor information in and through PCx.