About This Project

We want to find out how animals use spatial information to track an odor. The American Cockroach is a uniquely well suited model, because its incredibly long antennae (which are effectively insects' "noses") allow it to smell across a wide area at one time. We will investigate how spatial odor information is encoded in the nervous system. By examining how the brain coordinates odor information with locomotion, we will generate new insights about the control of insect behavior.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

The American Cockroach (Periplaneta americana) is an amazing odor tracker. They use their incredibly long antennae to smell; the whole antenna is their "nose" and because the antennae are each as long as their body, they are smelling across a large distance at one time. We have published behavioral data suggesting they make use of the spatial odor information provided by their antennae. There is other neural data showing that these cockroaches have a spatial odor map of their antenna in the antennal lobe. We would like to know what kind of information this spatial map sends out to the rest of the animal's brain, especially a region called the central complex, which is responsible for organizing sensory information with motor output.

What is the significance of this project?

There are two main things we will learn from this project: first, we will learn how the central complex responds to odor. This will be valuable no matter the result, as no on one has ever published recordings from the central complex in an insect while providing an odor stimulus. Second, we hope to learn if and how spatial information is encoded in the central complex.

Knowing what odor information is passed along to the central complex will give us good insight into how the animal makes decisions when tracking an odor. If we know how changes in the odor stimuli are summarized and passed along in the nervous system, we can build better models of odor tracking behavior, which can lead to better odor tracking robots (e.g., for finding chemical leaks, bombs, people in natural disaster sites).

What are the goals of the project?

The ultimate goal of this project is to understand how odor information is summarized and passed along in the nervous system. Our current odor tracking models use odor information as it is presented to the antennae, but by knowing what information is presented to the part of the brain that controls movement, we can improve our model of odor tracking. With better models, we can make better predictions of how the animals behave under different situations, and by having better predictions we can design more effective and efficient experiments in the future.

We will accomplish this by using bundled micro-wire electrodes to record from the cockroach brain while using our odor delivery system to stimulate regions of the antennae.