2. Behavioral Biology TALKS - Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

22. Symposium „Olfaction across species and systems”
Monday, September 24, 2012
Key Note: Chair: Giovanni Galizia A 600 / 14:00
Andreas Keller
The combinatorial logic of human olfaction
Author(s): Andreas Keller 1 , Hiro Matsunami 2 , Joel Mainland 3 , Leslie Vosshall 1
Affiliation: 1 Rockefeller University; 2 Duke University; 3 Monell Chemical Senses
Center
Humans have around 400 different odorant receptors and each odor activates a
unique combination of these odorant receptors. The genes encoding the human
odorant receptors are genetically extremely variable and it is therefore possible to
identify human subjects that lack a specific odorant receptor and then investigate
odor perception in those subjects. The results of experiments like this reveal the
combinatorial logic of olfactory coding in humans.
We have tested the perception of dozens of odors in several hundred subjects. Our
collaborators have sequenced hundreds of odorant receptor genes in these subjects.
They also determined in cell culture assays which odorant receptor variants are
functional and which variants are non-functional. The combination of this data
allowed us to show that lacking an odorant receptor changes the perceived intensity
and pleasantness of its ligands. We are now investigating the influence of specific
odorant receptors on the ability to distinguish between similar odors.
In another experiment we have tested physiological and psychological responses to
an odor that is structurally similar to the sex hormone testosterone in women who
are ovulating. We have identified an odorant receptor that influences physiological
responses to the odor, but not the conscious perception of it. Together these results
provide a fascinating insight into how hundreds of human odorant receptors interact
to ensure adaptive behavioral responses to our olfactory environment.
Key Note: Chair: Giovanni Galizia A 600 / 14:45
Leslie Kay
Strategy and plasticity in early olfactory processing of the rat olfactory system
Author(s): Prof. Leslie Kay 1
Affiliation: 1 The University of Chicago
It is common for neuroscientists to use behavior as an assay to determine that a
subject (rat, mouse, honeybee, moth, fly, human) has recognized or identified the
odor stimulus. However, the task that one chooses can affect the functional circuits
by which stimuli are processed, even at the very first level of olfactory processing.
260