Hjernens evne til at bearbejde komplekse dufte udfordrer dens interne repræsentation af lugte. Forskning viser, at identificering og kategorisering af lugtestimuli afhænger af dannelsen af “duftobjekter” i den piriforme cortex. Mønstre af lugtkvaliteter og kategorier i denne region er essentielle for at opretholde en konstant perception af varierende stimuli.
Titel på undersøgelse:
Central Mechanisms of Odor Object Perception.
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Hele abstrakt på originalsprog:
The stimulus complexity of naturally occurring odours presents unique challenges for central nervous systems that are aiming to internalize the external olfactory landscape. One mechanism by which the brain encodes perceptual representations of behaviourally relevant smells is through the synthesis of different olfactory inputs into a unified perceptual experience–an odour object. Recent evidence indicates that the identification, categorization and discrimination of olfactory stimuli rely on the formation and modulation of odour objects in the piriform cortex. Convergent findings from human and rodent models suggest that distributed piriform ensemble patterns of olfactory qualities and categories are crucial for maintaining the perceptual constancy of ecologically inconstant stimuli.