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A volume control for the sense of smell

Animals can discriminate between olfactory stimuli, but they perceive different concentrations of a chemical as one stimulus. A recent study suggests how this happens and reveals a neural circuit that mediates olfactory gain control.

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Figure 1: Lateral inhibition mediates gain control in the insect antennal lobe.

Katie Ris-Vicari

Figure 2: Both ionotropic and metabotropic GABARs regulate olfactory signal transfer.

Katie Ris-Vicari

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Strowbridge, B. A volume control for the sense of smell. Nat Neurosci 11, 531–533 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0508-531

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