Grant: Project Grant

Sensory processing is essential for our everyday life and allow us to perceive and decode different sensory stimuli in order to adapt our actions and emotional responses. We propose the series of experiments aiming at deciphering the role of different brain regions in the odor processing. By using morphological, electrophysiological and in vivo imaging recordings, combined with optogenetic stimulation and behavioral tests we will study how different brain regions respond to odor stimuli and how neuronal activity in these regions modulates odor perception. Our experiments will shed a light on mechanisms of olfactory processing in the adult brain under physiological conditions and what is the implication of distinct brain regions in the odor coding. Furthermore, since changes in the olfaction are early clinical hallmarks in several neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders, the information gathered in our project will deepen our understanding of neural circuitries that may be altered in pathological conditions.