ArticleeLife2021
Sniff-synchronized, gradient-guided olfactory search by freely moving mice.
Article in eLife, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers.
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Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Vision guides directed orienting movements during obstacle avoidance in mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
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- Multisensory integration for active mechanosensation in Drosophila flight.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Cardiac, respiratory, and gastric rhythms independently modulate motor corticospinal excitability in humans.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- DISSeCT: An unsupervised framework for high-resolution mapping of rodent behavior using inertial sensors.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Distinct brain regions map olfactory and visual spaces.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Basal forebrain cholinergic input mediates adaptive attention allocation to enhance olfactory discrimination.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Mice navigate scent trails using predictive policies.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Multisensory integration for active mechanosensation inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Global coordination of brain activity by the breathing cycle.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2025Review
- Greater mouse-tailed bats use their tail as a tactile sensor when navigating backwards.iScience · 2025Article
- Design Principles From Natural Olfaction for Electronic Noses.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- Challenges in inferring breathing rhythms from olfactory bulb local field potentials.Chemical senses · 2025Article
- Octopus track chemosensory plumes to find food.PloS one · 2025Article
- Olfactory bulb tracks breathing rhythms and place in freely behaving mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- How do mammals convert dynamic odor information into neural maps for landscape navigation?PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Wind gates olfaction-driven search states in free flight.Current biology : CB · 2024Article
- Sound-seeking before and after hearing loss in mice.Scientific reports · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
For many organisms, searching for relevant targets such as food or mates entails active, strategic sampling of the environment. Finding odorous targets may be the most ancient search problem that motile organisms evolved to solve. While chemosensory navigation has been well characterized in microorganisms and invertebrates, spatial olfaction in vertebrates is poorly understood. We have established an olfactory search assay in which freely moving mice navigate noisy concentration gradients of airborne odor. Mice solve this task using concentration gradient cues and do not require stereo olfaction for performance. During task performance, respiration and nose movement are synchronized with tens of milliseconds precision. This synchrony is present during trials and largely absent during inter-trial intervals, suggesting that sniff-synchronized nose movement is a strategic behavioral state rather than simply a constant accompaniment to fast breathing. To reveal the spatiotemporal structure of these active sensing movements, we used machine learning methods to parse motion trajectories into elementary movement motifs. Motifs fall into two clusters, which correspond to investigation and approach states. Investigation motifs lock precisely to sniffing, such that the individual motifs preferentially occur at specific phases of the sniff cycle. The allocentric structure of investigation and approach indicates an advantage to sampling both sides of the sharpest part of the odor gradient, consistent with a serial-sniff strategy for gradient sensing. This work clarifies sensorimotor strategies for mouse olfactory search and guides ongoing work into the underlying neural mechanisms.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.