Characterizing complex chemosensors: information-theoretic analysis of olfactory systems

Citation
Tk. Alkasab et al., Characterizing complex chemosensors: information-theoretic analysis of olfactory systems, TRENDS NEUR, 22(3), 1999, pp. 102-108
Citations number
49
Categorie Soggetti
Neurosciences & Behavoir
Journal title
TRENDS IN NEUROSCIENCES
ISSN journal
01662236 → ACNP
Volume
22
Issue
3
Year of publication
1999
Pages
102 - 108
Database
ISI
SICI code
0166-2236(199903)22:3<102:CCCIAO>2.0.ZU;2-S
Abstract
The mechanisms that underlie a wine lover's ability to identify a favorite vintage and a dog's ability to track the scent of a lost child are still de ep mysteries. Our understanding of these olfactory phenomena is confounded by the difficulty encountered when at-tempting to identify the parameters t hat define odor stimuli, by the broad tuning and variability of neurons in the olfactory pathway, and by the distributed nature of olfactory encoding, These issues pertain to both biological systems and to newly developed 'ar tificial noses' that seek to mimic these natural processes. Information the ory, which quantifies explicitly the extent to which the state of one syste m (for example, the universe of all odors) relates to the state of another (for example, the responses of an odor-sensing device), can serve as a basi s for analysing both natural and engineered odor sensors. This analytical a pproach can be used tcs explore the problems of defining stimulus dimension s, assessing strategies of neuronal processing, and examining the propertie s of biological systems that emerge from interactions among their complex c omponents. It can also serve to optimize the design of artificial olfactory devices for a variety of applications, which include process control, medi cal diagnostics and the detection of explosives.