Reinforced odor representations in the anterior olfactory nucleus can serve as memory traces for conspecifics.
Journal:
eNeuro
Published Date:
Jul 15, 2025
Abstract
Recognition of conspecific individuals in mammals is an important skill, thought to be mediated by a distributed array of neural networks, including those processing olfactory cues. Recent data from our groups have shown that social memory can be supported by olfactory cues alone, and that interactions with an individual lead to increased neural representations of that individual in the anterior olfactory nucleus, an olfactory network strongly modulated by the neuropeptide oxytocin. We here show, using a computational model, how enhanced representations in the AON can easily arise during the encoding phase, how they can be modulated by OXT and how a dynamic memory signature in the form of enhanced oscillations in the beta range arises from the architecture of the neural networks involved. These findings have implications for our understanding how social memories are formed and retrieved and generate further hypotheses that can be tested experimentally. Memory for con-specifics is often measured as a decrease of behavioral response compared to a novel conspecific. While behavioral responses decrease, it has been shown that neural responses to the familiar conspecific increase rather than decrease. We here use a computational model to show how increased neural responses arise from known circuitry and to suggest a mechanism underlying the decreased behavioral response.
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