Temporal organization of odor responses in the human olfactory bulb

Temporal organization of odor responses in the human olfactory bulb | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Temporal organization of odor responses in the human olfactory bulb Andrew Sheriff, Mahmoud Omidbeigi, Gregory Lane, Qiaohan Yang, and 9 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8627400/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract When sampling odors, humans typically take a single long sniff. This differs from other mammals, who typically sample odors through rapid repetitive sniffing bouts. Decades of work has established that rapid sniffing rhythms underlie the organizational principles of odor coding in the brain, with sniff speed clocking the temporal resolution of odor responses in the olfactory bulb. In the absence of rapid sniffing, how are odor responses organized in the human olfactory system? The divergence of human sniffing behavior from other mammals could have profound implications for the underlying neural mechanisms of odor coding, yet this question remains unexplored. Since most mammals sniff at rates centered around the theta frequency (2–12Hz), we hypothesized that the human olfactory bulb might exploit a theta-range neural oscillation to set the pace of odor coding in the system. If true, a single long human sniff should produce a phase-aligned theta oscillation in the olfactory bulb, responsive to behavioral changes in sniffing and related to higher-frequency bulb oscillations that support odor processing. Whether theta oscillations exist in the human olfactory bulb is unknown. Here, we collected high-precision neural recordings from the human olfactory bulb in healthy volunteers, allowing for quantification of neuronal oscillations at the single-trial level. We show that initiation of a sniff elicits and temporarily aligns theta oscillations in the human olfactory bulb. We further found that sniff-induced theta oscillations organize the timing and amplitude of responses to odor, suggesting that despite the lack of rapid sniffing bouts in humans, the system has preserved a similarly-timed unit of olfactory processing. neuroscience olfaction olfactory bulb neural oscillations Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8627400","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":577322421,"identity":"0256da6e-ff4f-461c-8ccf-f9407a64a378","order_by":0,"name":"Andrew Sheriff","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Andrew","middleName":"","lastName":"Sheriff","suffix":""},{"id":577322428,"identity":"8f7579e7-6b07-434f-91eb-e04fd5271a9f","order_by":1,"name":"Mahmoud Omidbeigi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mahmoud","middleName":"","lastName":"Omidbeigi","suffix":""},{"id":577322422,"identity":"ed104938-139c-4e74-a030-f5f66dbc8dc6","order_by":2,"name":"Gregory Lane","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Gregory","middleName":"","lastName":"Lane","suffix":""},{"id":577322423,"identity":"b6ced09a-de2e-4889-bb1d-b616c8fbe893","order_by":3,"name":"Qiaohan Yang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Qiaohan","middleName":"","lastName":"Yang","suffix":""},{"id":577322424,"identity":"07786296-0535-410c-8c70-0568cb6d66c5","order_by":4,"name":"Guangyu Zhou","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Guangyu","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhou","suffix":""},{"id":577322425,"identity":"6099490b-10df-4118-8bcd-107716c78d99","order_by":5,"name":"Adam Dede","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Adam","middleName":"","lastName":"Dede","suffix":""},{"id":577322426,"identity":"f078f7e3-057a-46c9-a0f7-bb8b124610cb","order_by":6,"name":"Naelly Arriaga","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Naelly","middleName":"","lastName":"Arriaga","suffix":""},{"id":577322427,"identity":"c00d58af-8099-49e5-8386-32e608581935","order_by":7,"name":"Vivek Sagar","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Vivek","middleName":"","lastName":"Sagar","suffix":""},{"id":577322429,"identity":"06aa7756-8a69-40b1-8eac-7d1b4aac0029","order_by":8,"name":"Ania M. 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