The relationship between odorant structure and odor quality has been a focus of olfactory
research for 100 years, although no systematic correlations are yet apparent. Animal studies …

It is widely presumed that odor quality is a direct outcome of odorant structure, but human
studies indicate that molecular knowledge of an odorant is not always sufficient to predict …

Sensory system function has evolved to meet the biological needs of organisms, but it is less
often regarded that sensory system form has by necessity evolved to contend with the …

Odor perception is inherently subjective. Previous work has shown that odorous molecules
evoke distributed activity patterns in olfactory cortices, but how these patterns map on to …

Efficient recognition of odorous objects universally shapes animal behavior and is crucial for
survival. To distinguish kin from nonkin, mate from nonmate and food from nonfood …

Highlights•Molecular and anatomical data imply high dimensionality in olfactory perception.•
Psychophysics uncover low dimensionality in olfactory perception.•Physicochemical odor …

In the olfactory system, environmental chemicals are deconstructed into neural signals and
then reconstructed to form odor perceptions. Much has been learned about odor coding in …

Neurons in piriform cortex receive input from a random collection of glomeruli, resulting in
odor representations that lack the stereotypic organization of the olfactory bulb. We have …

Psychophysical studies indicate that structural features of odorants differentially influence
their perceived odor. In the olfactory bulb (OB), odorants are represented by ensembles of …

Current models of odor discrimination in mammals involve molecular feature detection by a
large family of diverse olfactory receptors, refinement of molecular feature extraction through …