Odorants with multiple oxygen-containing functional groups and other odorants with high water solubility preferentially activate posterior olfactory bulb glomeruli.

ABSTRACT: In past studies in which we mapped 2-deoxyglucose uptake evoked by systematically different odorant chemicals across the entire rat olfactory bulb, glomerular responses could be related to each odorant's particular oxygen-containing functional group. In the present study we tested whether aliphatic odorants containing two such functional groups (esters, ketones, acids, alcohols, and ethers) would stimulate the combination of glomerular regions that are associated with each of the functional groups separately, or whether they would evoke unique responses in different regions of the bulb. We found that these very highly water-soluble molecules rarely evoked activity in the regions responding to the individual functional groups; instead, they activated posterior glomeruli located about halfwa

SUBMITTER: Johnson BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2219924 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature