Pierre-Marie Lledo
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Neurol Neurophysiol
The olfactory brain is flexible, from cognitive areas all the way down to the peripheral areas in which sensory information is
encoded so as to facilitate the subsequent extraction of relevant information. It is becoming increasingly clear that olfactory
adaptability operates at the level of neural circuits. In the adult olfactory bulb circuit, new neurons are constitutively recruited
throughout life and form an integral part of the normal functional network. This presentation focuses on the functional issues
linked to the neurogenic plasticity of olfaction. After outlining the processes of adult neurogenesis in the olfactory system
and discussing their regulation by various factors, I will explore the possible functional role of newly-formed neurons in the
host olfactory circuits. I will extract clues regarding the contribution of adult-born neurons to the different circuits of the
olfactory bulb and specifically how new neurons participate in existing computations and enable new computational functions.
Concentrating exclusively on mammalian systems, I will demonstrate throughout this presentation that adult neurogenesis is
a plastic mechanism by which several olfactory bulb performances can be optimized.
