Understanding how sensory space maps to neural activity in the olfactory system requires efficiently and flexibly delivering numerous odorants within single experimental preparations. Such delivery is difficult with current olfactometer designs, which typically include limited numbers of stimulus channels and are subject to intertrial and interchannel contamination of odorants. Here, we present a novel olfactometer design that is easily constructed, modular, and capable of delivering an unlimited number of odorants in air with temporal precision and no detectable intertrial or interchannel contamination. The olfactometer further allows for the flexible generation of odorant mixtures and flexible timing of odorant sequences. Odorant delivery from the olfactometer is turbulent but reliable from trial to trial, supporting operant conditioning of mice in an odorant discrimination task and permitting odorants and concentrations to be mapped to neural activity with a level of precision equivalent to that obtained with a flow dilution olfactometer. This novel design thus provides several unique advantages for interrogating olfactory perception and for mapping sensory space to neural activity in the olfactory system.

中文翻译：

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一种新型嗅觉计，可实现高效、灵活的气味输送。

了解感觉空间如何映射到嗅觉系统中的神经活动需要在单一实验准备中有效且灵活地传递大量气味剂。对于当前的嗅觉计设计来说，这种递送是困难的，其通常包括有限数量的刺激通道并且容易受到气味剂的间和通道间污染。在这里，我们提出了一种新颖的嗅觉计设计，该设计易于构建、模块化，能够以时间精度在空气中提供无限数量的气味剂，并且不会检测到试间或通道间污染。嗅觉计还允许灵活地生成气味混合物和灵活地计时气味序列。嗅觉计发出的气味是不稳定的，但每次试验都是可靠的，支持小鼠在气味辨别任务中的操作条件反射，并允许将气味和浓度映射到神经活动，其精度水平相当于使用流动稀释嗅觉计获得的精度。因此，这种新颖的设计为询问嗅觉感知和将感觉空间映射到嗅觉系统中的神经活动提供了几个独特的优势。