Real-time tracking of olfactory information, and correlating behavior with odor plume-encounters in an olfactory-guided navigation task: On why my ethanol plumes brought all the mice to the yard

Abstract

Understanding the neural underpinnings of sensory-guided decision-making has been one of the central pursuits of neuroscience. Olfaction is one key sensory modality that ensures the survival of a species by guiding essential behaviors like foraging, locating a mate, and shelter, and avoiding predation in individuals. Until recently, however, most of our understanding of the principles of mammalian olfactory neuroscience had been from studies using head-fixed preparations. How a complex olfactory stimulus in the form of a turbulent odor-plume guides navigation in mammals remains elusive. This lack-of-understanding stems from the challenges associated with recreating the complex olfactory landscape that animals experience in the wild, and correlating the dynamic olfactory information with behavior and neural processing. Hence, in this thesis I summarize our approach in: 1) recreating the naturalistic behavior of plume-tracking in a lab using complex olfactory plumes, 2) using head-mounted sensors to record real-time olfactory and head-movement information during odor-guided navigation in mice, and 3) correlating behavioral adaptations with odor-plume contacts in freely moving mice engaged in an odor-guided navigation task.