Hierarchical Elemental Odor Coding for Fine Discrimination Between Enantiomer Odors or Cancer-Characteristic Odors.

Odors trigger various emotional responses such as fear of predator odors, aversion to disease or cancer odors, attraction to male/female odors, and appetitive behavior to delicious food odors. Odor information processing for fine odor discrimination, however, has remained difficult to address. The olfaction and color vision share common features that G protein-coupled receptors are the remote sensors. As different orange colors can be discriminated by distinct intensity ratios of elemental colors, such as yellow and red, odors are likely perceived as multiple elemental odors hierarchically that the intensities of elemental odors are in order of dominance. For example, in a mixture of rose and fox-unique predator odors, robust rose odor alleviates the fear of mice to predator odors. Moreover, although occult blood odor is stronger than bladder cancer-characteristic odor in urine samples, sniffer mice can discriminate bladder cancer odor in occult blood-positive urine samples. In forced-choice odor discrimination tasks for pairs of enantiomers or pairs of body odors vs. cancer-induced body odor disorders, sniffer mice discriminated against learned olfactory cues in a wide range of concentrations, where correct choice rates decreased in the Fechner's law, as perceptual ambiguity increased. In this mini-review, we summarize the current knowledge of how the olfactory system encodes and hierarchically decodes multiple elemental odors to control odor-driven behaviors.

The Anterior Piriform Cortex and Predator Odor Responses: Modulation by Inhibitory Circuits.

Rodents acquire more information from the sense of smell than humans because they have a nearly fourfold greater variety of olfactory receptors. They use olfactory information not only for obtaining food, but also for detecting environmental dangers. Predator-derived odor compounds provoke instinctive fear and stress reactions in animals. Inbred lines of experimental animals react in an innate stereotypical manner to predators even without prior exposure. Predator odors have also been used in models of various neuropsychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder following a life-threatening event. Although several brain regions have been reported to be involved in predator odor-induced stress responses, in this mini review, we focus on the functional role of inhibitory neural circuits, especially in the anterior piriform cortex (APC). We also discuss the changes in these neural circuits following innate reactions to odor exposure. Furthermore, based on the three types of modulation of the stress response observed by our group using the synthetic fox odorant 2,5-dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline, we describe how the APC interacts with other brain regions to regulate the stress response. Finally, we discuss the potential therapeutic application of odors in the treatment of stress-related disorders. A clearer understanding of the odor-stress response is needed to allow targeted modulation of the monoaminergic system and of the intracerebral inhibitory networks. It would be improved the quality of life of those who have stress-related conditions.

Simultaneous activities in both mirror-image glomerular maps in the olfactory bulb may have an important role in stress-related neuronal responses in mice.

In the mouse olfactory bulb (OB), odor input from the olfactory epithelium innervates topographically to form odorant maps, which are mirror-image arrangements of glomerular clusters with domain organization. However, the functional role of the mirror-image representation in the OB remains unknown. Predator odors induce stress responses, and the dorsal domain of the dorsolateral wall of the olfactory bulb (dlOB) is known to be involved in this process. However, it remains unclear whether the activities in the medial wall of the OB (mOB), the other mirror half, are also involved in stress responses. Therefore, in this study, we investigated whether the mOB and dlOB are required for the induction of stress responses using lesioning or electrical stimulation. Although there were no significant differences in the number of activated neurons in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, posterior piriform cortex or amygdalo-piriform transition area, fewer activated neurons were observed in the anterior piriform cortex (APC) following lesion of both the mOB and dlOB combined. No changes were observed in the density of activated cells in any examined brain region following stimulation of either the mOB or dlOB alone. However, activated neurons in the APC were significantly more numerous following simultaneous stimulation of the mOB and dlOB. Collectively, our results suggest that simultaneous activation in both the mOB and dlOB is needed to induce APC neural activities that produce stress-like behavior. These findings provide insight into olfactory information processing, and may also help in the development of therapies for odor-induced stress behaviors.

Habitat odor can alleviate innate stress responses in mice.

Predatory odors, which can induce innate fear and stress responses in prey species, are frequently used in the development of animal models for several psychiatric diseases including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following a life-threatening event. We have previously shown that odors can be divided into at least three types; odors that act as (1) innate stressors, (2) as innate relaxants, or (3) have no innate effects on stress responses. Here, we attempted to verify whether an artificial odor, which had no innate effect on predatory odor-induced stress, could alleviate stress if experienced in early life as a habitat odor. In the current study, we demonstrated that the innate responses were changed to counteract stress following a postnatal experience. Moreover, we suggest that inhibitory circuits involved in stress-related neuronal networks and the concentrations of norepinephrine in the hippocampus may be crucial in alleviating stress induced by the predatory odor. Overall, these findings may be important for understanding the mechanisms involved in differential odor responses and also for the development of pharmacotherapeutic interventions that can alleviate stress in illnesses like PTSD.

Stress-related activities induced by predator odor may become indistinguishable by hinokitiol odor.

Predator odors, such as 2,5-dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT), induce a stress-like behavior in some rodents, and there is activation of a complex mix of brain regions including the anterior piriform cortex (APC) and the bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BST). In contrast, rose odor can counteract TMT-induced activation of the ventrorostral part of APC and the medial part of BST. In the present study, two novel odors, woody (hinokitiol) and caraway [S(+)-carvone] odors, were evaluated to determine whether they have an antistress effect. Plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone levels, a marker of stress, and the number of c-Fos-immunopositive cells were determined in APC and BST. Plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone levels were increased by TMT alone and in combination with S(+)-carvone; however, hinokitiol with or without TMT did not have an effect. The number of activated cells in the medial part of BST was increased by TMT alone and in combination with S(+)-carvone or hinokitiol. Although TMT alone activated the medial part of BST, a mixture of TMT and hinokitiol activated both the medial and the lateral part of BST. These data suggest that the selective responses to TMT in the medial part of BST were obscured by activation of more odor-related regions by hinokitiol with TMT. In addition, the ratio of medial to lateral BST activation may be critical in stress-related behavior. In conclusion, hinokitiol can alleviate TMT-induced stress; however, the underlying mechanism appears to be different from that of the rose odor, as found in our previous study.

Rose odor can innately counteract predator odor.

When animals smell a predator odor such as 2,5-Dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT), even if it is a novel substance, the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is activated, causing stress-like behaviors. Although the medial part of the bed nucleus of stria terminalis (mBST) is known to be involved in this process, the mechanism remains unclear. Moreover, it is unknown whether there is any odor that can counteract the predator odor, even when the odorants are novel substances for the animals. In this study, we assessed whether rose odor can counteract by counting the number of activated neurons in mice brain following the presentation of rose odor with or without TMT for 30 min. The number of activated cells in the mBST and in the ventrorostral part of the anterior piriform cortex (APC) was significantly reduced by a mixture of TMT and rose odor; however, no significant differences were noted in the dorsal part of the APC and in the olfactory bulb (OB) following TMT presentation with or without rose odor. The results suggest that rose odor may counteract the TMT-induced stress response in the OB and/or APC and suppress the neural circuit to the mBST. It also indicates that there are some odors that can innately counteract predator odor, even when they have not been experienced before.

Lamina-selective changes in the density of synapses following perturbation of monoamines and acetylcholine in the rat medial prefrontal cortex.

The rat medial prefrontal cortex is known to have diverse brain functions such as learning and memory, attention, and behavioral flexibility. Although these functions are affected by monoamines (dopamine (DA), noradrenaline (NA) and serotonin (5-HT)) and acetylcholine (ACh), the detailed mechanisms remain unclear. These neuromodulators also have effects on synapse formation and maintenance, and regulate plasticity in the central nervous system (CNS). To clarify the effects of these neuromodulators on changes in the density of synapses in the rat medial prefrontal cortex, we separately administered a D1- or D2-antagonist, NA neurotoxin, 5-HT synthetic inhibitor, or muscarinic ACh antagonist for 1 week, and counted the number of synapses on electron microscopic photographs taken from the prelimbic area of the medial prefrontal cortex. The density of synapses in lamina I was regulated by DA via D1-like receptors, and that in laminae II/III was decreased by depletion of NA or ACh. However, 5-HT did not have a regulatory effect on the synaptic density throughout the layers in this brain region. The data in this study and our previous studies indicate that there are appreciable regional differences in the magnitude of biogenic amine-mediated synaptic plasticity in the rat CNS. These neuromodulators may have a trophic-like effect on the selected neuronal circuit to maintain synaptic contacts in the rat CNS. The synaptic density in the medial prefrontal cortex regulated by monoamines and ACh could be important not only for synaptic plasticity in this region but also for pharmacotherapeutic drug treatment.