Active sensing in a dynamic olfactory world
Active sensing in a dynamic olfactory world
John Crimaldi, Hong Lei, Andreas Schaefer, Michael Schmuker, Brian H. Smith, Aaron C. True, Justus V. Verhagen and Jonathan D. Victor
J. Comput. Neurosci., doi.org/10.1007/s10827-021-00798-1(2021)
Introduction
This Perspective highlights the shift from the classic picture
of olfaction as slow and static to a view in which dynamics
play a critical role at many levels of sensing and behavior.
Olfaction is now increasingly seen as a "wide-bandwidth
temporal sense." A
parallel transition is occurring in odor-guided robot navigation,
where it has been discovered that sensors can access
temporal cues useful for navigation.
We are only beginning to understand the implications of
this paradigm-shift on our view of olfactory and olfactomotor
circuits. Below we review insights into the information
encoded in turbulent odor plumes and shine light on
how animals could access this information. We suggest that
a key challenge for olfactory neuroscience is to re-interpret
work based on static stimuli in the context of natural odor
dynamics and actively exploring animals.
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