How the Brain Decodes Odors and Computational Neuroethology with Bob Datta

Olfaction, the most primitive of our senses, enables our brains to perceive thousands of different airborne chemicals. But it is not known how the outside olfactory world is coded in neuronal networks in the brain nor how those codes are evaluated in ways that result in behavioral responses to specific odors. Professor Bob Datta’s laboratory at Harvard is developing and using cutting-edge technologies to answer these questions. Here he talks about the different types of neurons and their spatial and function organization in the olfactory system, and how emerging 3D imaging and unsupervised machine learning technologies are enabling quantitative analysis of spontaneous and odor-evoked behaviors of animals in natural environments.

Links: 

Datta Lab webpage: http://datta.hms.harvard.edu/

Review article:

https://www-annualreviews-org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-neuro-102119-103452

Recent publications from the Datta Lab:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9892006/pdf/41586_2022_Article_5611.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8758202/pdf/nihms-1757925.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7606807/pdf/nihms-1619406.pdf