Antennal Lobe Dynamics And The Generation Of Diverse Response Patterns To Mechanosensory Stimulation
- 1William & Mary
Abstract
Sensory integration within antennal lobe (AL) is thought to play a role in the guidance of odor tracking, though while responses to olfactory input within the AL have been well-studied, responses to mechanosensory stimuli, in the form of wind speed, have received less scrutiny. Recent experimental work has systematically characterized mechanosensory responses of individual neurons within the AL, showing four distinct response patterns, labeled as sustained, transient, biphasic, and offset types; furthermore, these experiments have demonstrated that the distribution of response patterns, as well as the response type of a fixed neuron, can vary with stimulus intensity (wind speed). In this work, we develop a realistic biophysical model of the AL and, using this model, we show that internal AL dynamics are capable of generating the response patterns observed experimentally - namely, we find that response type is determined by the interplay of slow synaptic inhibition, an intrinsic calcium dependent potassium (SK) current, and stimulus strength, and hence that a heterogeneous distribution of slow inhibition and SK current strength across the AL can lead to the emergence of all four types at a fixed wind speed. Moreover, similar to experiment, we find that the distribution of response patterns across the AL changes with wind speed. Finally, we examine the distribution of response types in the presence of a simulated odor stimulus as well as odor separation by the AL in the presence versus absence of a strong mechanosensory signal.
Related
- Temporal dynamics of antennal responses encode plant stress and ecological relevance in Spodoptera littoralis moths
- Pilifers provide rapid mechanosensory feedback during floral tracking in hawkmoths
- Wireless Electromagnetic Generation of miRNA Sponges and Nerve Stimulation by an Adaptable Electrical Scaffold for Repair of Traumatic Brain Injury
- Edge controllability is associated with treatment response to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in depression.
- Sticking the landing: leg mechanosensory feedback coordinates the transition from flight to landing
BibTeX
@misc{reed2026antennal,
title = {{Antennal Lobe Dynamics And The Generation Of Diverse Response Patterns To Mechanosensory Stimulation}},
author = {J. Reed and M. Patel},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.09.750382},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.09.750382v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Antennal Lobe Dynamics And The Generation Of Diverse Response Patterns To Mechanosensory Stimulation
AU - J. Reed
AU - M. Patel
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/09
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.09.750382
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.09.750382v1
AB - Sensory integration within antennal lobe (AL) is thought to play a role in the guidance of odor tracking, though while responses to olfactory input within the AL have been well-studied, responses to mechanosensory stimuli, in the form of wind speed, have received less scrutiny. Recent experimental work has systematically characterized mechanosensory responses of individual neurons within the AL, showing four distinct response patterns, labeled as sustained, transient, biphasic, and offset types; furthermore, these experiments have demonstrated that the distribution of response patterns, as well as the response type of a fixed neuron, can vary with stimulus intensity (wind speed). In this work, we develop a realistic biophysical model of the AL and, using this model, we show that internal AL dynamics are capable of generating the response patterns observed experimentally - namely, we find that response type is determined by the interplay of slow synaptic inhibition, an intrinsic calcium dependent potassium (SK) current, and stimulus strength, and hence that a heterogeneous distribution of slow inhibition and SK current strength across the AL can lead to the emergence of all four types at a fixed wind speed. Moreover, similar to experiment, we find that the distribution of response patterns across the AL changes with wind speed. Finally, we examine the distribution of response types in the presence of a simulated odor stimulus as well as odor separation by the AL in the presence versus absence of a strong mechanosensory signal.
ER -