Regensburg 2022 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 12: Poster 2

BP 12.63: Poster

Dienstag, 6. September 2022, 17:30–19:30, P4

Physics of optimal odor detection — •Swati Sen and David Zwicker — Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-organization, Göttingen, Germany

Animals need to detect and discriminate odors for survival. In contrast to other senses, olfaction is shaped by physical processes, including odorant transport by the airflow and adsorption in the nasal mucus layer. These processes crucially affect what the brain can learn about the chemical composition of the environment. We study how the olfactory system relays information by using a simplified theoretical description of the airflow and the adsorption in the mucus. We predict the length scales over which odorants absorb along the olfactory epithelium. This length scale depends significantly on the odorant’s solubility but is only weakly affected by odorant diffusivity and adsorption strength of mucus wall. We use these predictions to obtain the optimal arrangement of odorant receptor neurons that maximizes the information relay to the brain. We notice that the receptors sensitive to odorants with shorter adsorption length scale always reside closer to the cavity inlet side and cover the cavity in an increasing fraction of total cavity length with adsorption length scale. Taken together, we study design principles of optimal odor information encoding using a simple fluid dynamical model and information theory. Our approach could help to understand the natural olfaction process and develop artificial noses.