Olfactory regulation by dopamine and DRD2 receptor in the nose.

SignificanceDespite the identification of neural circuits and circulating hormones in olfactory regulation, the peripheral targets for olfactory modulation remain relatively unexplored. Here we show that dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) is expressed in the cilia and somata of mature olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), while nasal dopamine (DA) is mainly released from the sympathetic nerve terminals, which innervate the mouse olfactory mucosa (OM). We further demonstrate that DA-DRD2 signaling in the nose plays important roles in regulating olfactory function using genetic and pharmacological approaches. Moreover, the local DA synthesis in mouse OM is reduced during hunger, which contributes to starvation-induced olfactory enhancement. Altogether, we demonstrate that nasal DA and DRD2 receptor can serve as the potential peripheral targets for olfactory modulation.

Rapid odor perception in rat olfactory bulb by microelectrode array.

Responses of 302 mitral/tufted (M/T) cells in the olfactory bulb were recorded from 42 anesthetized freely breathing rats using a 16-channel microwire electrode array. Saturated vapors of four pure chemicals, anisole, carvone, citral and isoamyl acetate were applied. After aligning spike trains to the initial phase of the inhalation after odor onset, the responses of M/T cells showed transient temporal features including excitatory and inhibitory patterns. Both odor-evoked patterns indicated that mammals recognize odors within a short respiration cycle after odor stimulus. Due to the small amount of information received from a single cell, we pooled results from all responsive M/T cells to study the ensemble activity. The firing rates of the cell ensembles were computed over 100 ms bins and population vectors were constructed. The high dimension vectors were condensed into three dimensions for visualization using principal component analysis. The trajectories of both excitatory and inhibitory cell ensembles displayed strong dynamics during odor stimulation. The distances among cluster centers were enlarged compared to those of the resting state. Thus, we presumed that pictures of odor information sent to higher brain regions were depicted and odor discrimination was completed within the first breathing cycle.