One nose but two nostrils: Learn to align with sparse connections between two olfactory cortices.

ABSTRACT: The integration of neural representations in the two hemispheres is an important problem in neuroscience. Recent experiments revealed that odor responses in cortical neurons driven by separate stimulation of the two nostrils are highly correlated. This bilateral alignment points to structured inter-hemispheric connections, but detailed mechanism remains unclear. Here, we hypothesized that continuous exposure to environmental odors shapes these projections and modeled it as online learning with local Hebbian rule. We found that Hebbian learning with sparse connections achieves bilateral alignment, exhibiting a linear trade-off between speed and accuracy. We identified an inverse scaling relationship between the number of cortical neurons and the inter-hemispheric projection density required

SUBMITTER: Liu B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11100918 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature