( tory bulb with intrinsic signal imaging...)Researchers show how brain decodes complex smells

To start, the researchers separated and identified the volatile compounds in each odor with gas chromatography. "A complex mixture like urine has at least a hundred separate compounds in it," Lin said. They analyzed scents as diverse as peanut butter, coffee and fresh bobcat urine shipped to the laboratory on dry ice.

The researchers then exposed the mice to the original odor and its individual compounds. "We found that glomeruli, the functional units of the olfactory bulb, act as detectors for individual compounds," Lin said. "There are no single detectors for complete smells."

Thus, to distinguish different scents, the brain must integrate the signals of multiple chemical components into an odor "picture." The researchers suspect that this integration doesn't happen in the olfactory bulb. Instead, the bulb likely passes the data to more advanced brain structures where it is assembled and recognized as a specific scent.

Understanding how the olfactory system works in mice may also provide broader insights into human perception, said Stephen Shea, Ph.D., a Duke University Medical Center research associate who participated in the study. Perception relies on combining multiple components, whether the input is smell, sight or sound. Shea suggested that probing the olfactory system could help scientists better understand, for example, how the various biological and neurological components underlying perception formed and evolved.