Neuro Topics - Smell
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June 13, 2023
Chemosensation is a critical sense through which animals large and small perceive the world around them, yet our understanding of the way in which odorants in the environment are encoded by sensory neurons remains incomplete. Albert Lin and colleagues in the Samuel Lab recorded from chemosensory neurons in the nematode C. elegans as it experienced different odorants, uncovering how olfactory information is encoded in the brain of the worm.
Original article in: Science Advances >
May 11, 2023
Harvard MCB Department news article on new research from Venkatesh Murthy and colleagues, co-first authors Alice Berners-Lee and Elizabeth Shtrahman, examining how odor mixtures are represented in the piriform cortex of mice while they learn to discriminate a unique target odor mixture from hundreds of other odor mixtures. They found that with time the target mixture becomes over-represented--meaning more neurons of this brain region become selective for the target odor mixture than they were at
Original article in: PLOS Biology >
March 3, 2023
Harvard Gazette article on new research from Yun Zhang and colleagues, co-first authors Taihong Wu and Minghai Ge, illuminating how pathogens — and pheromones — alter social behavior in animals.
Original article in: Nature >
January 25, 2023
HMS News article on new research from Sandeep Robert Datta, David Brann, Tatsuya Tsukahara, and colleagues at Duke Health and UC San Diego, finding that long-term loss of smell may be linked to an ongoing immune assault on olfactory nerve cells and an associated decline in the number of those cells.
June 30, 2022
Harvard MCB News article on new research from the lab of Venki Murthy, first author Nuné Martiros, providing insight into the workings of neural circuits in the ventral striatum’s olfactory tubercle during odor association learning.
Original article in: eLife >
May 4, 2021
HMS News article on new research from Stephen Liberles and Nao Horio into the neurobiology that underlies food attraction and how hungry mice choose to pay attention to one object in their environment over another.
Original article in: Nature >
March 19, 2021
Katrin Vogt shares new research from the lab of Aravi Samuel identifying how feeding state-dependent neuronal modulations affect processing of olfactory information and olfactory choice behavior in Drosophila larvae.
Original article in: Science Advances >
September 8, 2020
Joseph Zak shares new research from the labs of Venkatesh Murthy and colleagues in France on how blends of odors are detected and encoded by olfactory receptor neurons.
Original article in: Nature Communications >
August 10, 2020
Myung-Gyu Choi and Yun Zhang share new research on C. elegans providing the first set of findings that demonstrate the causal role of gap junction plasticity in regulating learning in behavior.
Original article in: Nature Communications >
July 28, 2020
HMS News article on new research from the lab of Sandeep Robert Datta and colleagues, co-first authors David H. Brann, Tatsuya Tsukahara, and Caleb Weinreb, demonstrating that olfactory support cells are vulnerable to novel coronavirus infection.
Original article in: Science Advances >
April 22, 2020
MCB news article on new research from the lab of Venkatesh Murthy on recent developments in reinforcement learning in mice.
Original article in: Journal of Neuroscience >
April 16, 2020
Harvard Gazette article where the Chan School’s Karestan Koenen discusses rising mental health concerns in the coronavirus era.
Original article in: Journal of Neuroscience >
April 16, 2020
Harvard Gazette article summarizing a recent Chan School forum led by Donn Posner, who says problem is becoming more common, and offers tips for falling and staying asleep.
Original article in: Journal of Neuroscience >
April 8, 2020
MCB News article on new research from the labs of Venkatesh Murthy and Beth Stevens, first author Jenelle Wallace, suggesting that microglial regulation of adult-born neuron development could contribute to ongoing plasticity in the olfactory system.
Original article in: eLife >
March 25, 2019
Bees and ants have begun to play key roles in neuroscience research. At Harvard alone, at least five labs have recently turned to these non-traditional model organisms to answer questions about social and navigational behaviors.
Original article in: eLife >
February 21, 2019
How does our brain distinguish changes in the identity of a smell from changes in the intensity of that smell? Paper highlight by Jess Kanwal, Guangwei Si, and Aravi Samuel.
Original article in: Neuron >
January 28, 2019
This award recognizes an investigator who has made outstanding contributions to the field of immunology in the area of B cell biology.
Original article in: Neuron >
January 28, 2019
This award is given by Carnegie Mellon University and recognizes substantial achievements in the natural sciences, engineering, computer science or mathematics.
Original article in: Neuron >
January 28, 2019
This award is given by the Sleep Research Society and recognizes individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to sleep and circadian science.
Original article in: Neuron >
January 28, 2019
This award is given by the American Society of Addiction Medicine and recognizes work that has significantly contributed to solving the problem of alcoholism.
Original article in: Neuron >
January 28, 2019
These awards are given by the National Academy of Science to recognize extraordinary scientific achievements in a wide variety of fields.
Original article in: Neuron >
January 22, 2019
New York Times article on recent research from the lab of Venkatesh Murthy providing new insight into how ants use their antennas to navigate their world.
December 21, 2018
Harvard Gazette article highlighting breakthrough studies tracking the development of zebrafish and frog embryos from the labs of Alexander Schier (Harvard), Allon Klein, Sean Megason, and Marc Kirschner.
November 27, 2018
Boston Globe story on new work from Eric Holbrook and colleagues, taking initial steps towards a potential treatment for anosmia, the loss of the sense of smell.