PMID- 29712784
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20191022
LR  - 20200306
IS  - 1529-2401 (Electronic)
IS  - 0270-6474 (Print)
IS  - 0270-6474 (Linking)
VI  - 38
IP  - 21
DP  - 2018 May 23
TI  - Temporal Response Properties of Accessory Olfactory Bulb Neurons: Limitations and 
      Opportunities for Decoding.
PG  - 4957-4976
LID - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2091-17.2018 [doi]
AB  - The vomeronasal system (VNS) is a major vertebrate chemosensory system that 
      functions in parallel to the main olfactory system (MOS). Despite many 
      similarities, the two systems dramatically differ in the temporal domain. While 
      MOS responses are governed by breathing and follow a subsecond temporal scale, 
      VNS responses are uncoupled from breathing and evolve over seconds. This suggests 
      that the contribution of response dynamics to stimulus information will differ 
      between these systems. While temporal dynamics in the MOS are widely 
      investigated, similar analyses in the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) are lacking. 
      Here, we have addressed this issue using controlled stimulus delivery to the 
      vomeronasal organ of male and female mice. We first analyzed the temporal 
      properties of AOB projection neurons and demonstrated that neurons display 
      prolonged, variable, and neuron-specific characteristics. We then analyzed 
      various decoding schemes using AOB population responses. We showed that compared 
      with the simplest scheme (i.e., integration of spike counts over the entire 
      response period), the division of this period into smaller temporal bins actually 
      yields poorer decoding accuracy. However, optimal classification accuracy can be 
      achieved well before the end of the response period by integrating spike counts 
      within temporally defined windows. Since VNS stimulus uptake is variable, we 
      analyzed decoding using limited information about stimulus uptake time, and 
      showed that with enough neurons, such time-invariant decoding is feasible. 
      Finally, we conducted simulations that demonstrated that, unlike the main 
      olfactory bulb, the temporal features of AOB neurons disfavor decoding with high 
      temporal accuracy, and, rather, support decoding without precise knowledge of 
      stimulus uptake time.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT A key goal in sensory system research 
      is to identify which metrics of neuronal activity are relevant for decoding 
      stimulus features. Here, we describe the first systematic analysis of temporal 
      coding in the vomeronasal system (VNS), a chemosensory system devoted to socially 
      relevant cues. Compared with the main olfactory system, timescales of VNS 
      function are inherently slower and variable. Using various analyses of real and 
      simulated data, we show that the consideration of response times relative to 
      stimulus uptake can aid the decoding of stimulus information from neuronal 
      activity. However, response properties of accessory olfactory bulb neurons favor 
      decoding schemes that do not rely on the precise timing of stimulus uptake. Such 
      schemes are consistent with the variable nature of VNS stimulus uptake.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2018 the authors 0270-6474/18/384957-20$15.00/0.
FAU - Yoles-Frenkel, Michal
AU  - Yoles-Frenkel M
AD  - Hebrew University Medical School, Department of Medical Neurobiology, The 
      Institute for Medical Research, Israel-Canada, Jerusalem 9112102, Israel.
FAU - Kahan, Anat
AU  - Kahan A
AD  - Hebrew University Medical School, Department of Medical Neurobiology, The 
      Institute for Medical Research, Israel-Canada, Jerusalem 9112102, Israel.
FAU - Ben-Shaul, Yoram
AU  - Ben-Shaul Y
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-0407-4221
AD  - Hebrew University Medical School, Department of Medical Neurobiology, The 
      Institute for Medical Research, Israel-Canada, Jerusalem 9112102, Israel 
      yoramb@ekmd.huji.ac.il.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PT  - Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
DEP - 20180430
PL  - United States
TA  - J Neurosci
JT  - The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for 
      Neuroscience
JID - 8102140
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Computer Simulation
MH  - Female
MH  - Male
MH  - Mice
MH  - Mice, Inbred BALB C
MH  - Mice, Inbred C57BL
MH  - Neurons/*physiology
MH  - Odorants
MH  - Olfactory Bulb/cytology/*physiology
MH  - Olfactory Pathways/cytology/physiology
MH  - Sex Characteristics
MH  - Species Specificity
MH  - Support Vector Machine
MH  - Urine/chemistry
MH  - Vomeronasal Organ/cytology/*physiology
PMC - PMC6596120
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - accessory olfactory bulb
OT  - decoding
OT  - temporal coding
OT  - vomeronasal system
EDAT- 2018/05/02 06:00
MHDA- 2019/10/23 06:00
PMCR- 2018/11/23
CRDT- 2018/05/02 06:00
PHST- 2017/07/25 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2018/02/27 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2018/04/22 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2018/05/02 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2019/10/23 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2018/05/02 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2018/11/23 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - JNEUROSCI.2091-17.2018 [pii]
AID - 2091-17 [pii]
AID - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2091-17.2018 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Neurosci. 2018 May 23;38(21):4957-4976. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2091-17.2018. 
      Epub 2018 Apr 30.