Widespread receptor-driven modulation in peripheral olfactory coding

The perception of complex scents It is generally assumed that olfactory receptors faithfully report information to the brain in the form of a linear, additive code. However, under realistic conditions, the olfactory system handles a far more complex input, usually mixtures of odors. Xu et al. found that when we smell scents, the nasal olfactory sensory neurons relay a more complex pattern of signals to the brain than previously thought. The responses of individual neurons within the peripheral olfactory epithelium were either amplified or attenuated by the presence of other odors, which could explain the common perception of one odor in a mixture dominating over others. This effect occurs within the peripheral sensory organ's receptors and not within the brain. Science , this issue p. eaaz5390