Computer Simulation Of Olfactory Neural System Recognition Model

Now more and more scientists have put their eyes in the research of the neural system, especially about the olfactory system. Not only is it due to the fact that olfactory system is yet among the most unknown sensory neural systems, but also because olfactory neural system has been reported to be tightly related to the learning and memory mechanisms of the brain. Therefore, our study could help explore and understand mechanisms of olfactory system and even brain.At present, work being done on the mechanisms of olfactory system is still at a preliminary stage. The main reason is the complicated anatomic structure of the nasal cavity and the special physiological location of the olfactory region, which has caused much trouble in direct experiment studies. However, combining experiments with models has provided a feasible and an effective alternative approach. In this paper, we first briefly introduce a set of typical models ever proposed on olfactory system, then create a model of the locust antennal lobe focused on spatiotemporal coding and decoding mechanisms.Electrophysiological experiments in the locust antennal lobe have suggested that the firing activities of excitatory projection neurons(PNs) present different spatiotemporal patterns correspondingly to different odors. In this paper, we sought to investigate the influence of neurotransmitters on the spatiotemporal olfactory coding by changing parameters of nAchergic and GABAergic synaptic currents based on a model of the locust antennal lobe. The key roles of oscillatory synchronization as well as synaptic junctions in olfactory recognition could be better understood through our simulations.Studies mentioned above have offered a promising basis for models on mechanisms of olfactory neuronal recognition. In further studies, the neuro-chips could be applied together with such models to evaluate our simulation results in comparison with experiments' data.