Complex Decisions
Odor-guided foraging
Rodents use odors to explore their environment, find food and avoid predators. We use customized technology to create tasks in the laboratory based on this natural odor-guided behavior. This allows us to study the brain as it engages in multiple forms of complex, real-world reasoning. In the video below we have illustrated the early stages of the rodent olfactory system, as well as how this system interacts with natural odor plumes.
Odor-guided foraging in the lab: natural plume dynamics
We study this behavior from a variety of angles. In one project, we use a wind tunnel and customized sensors to create and quantify turbulent odor plumes and analyze how these plumes are encoded by the early stages of the olfactory system. Here we show an example of neural activity imaged in the olfactory bulb response to a simultaneously recorded odor plume (shown in red).
Odor-guided foraging in the lab: the role of memory
Rodents also use memory to map their environment and perform more effective searches for resources such as food. In a second set of experiments we examine how rodents combine odor information with memory to efficiently find food. Here we show a rat trained over several sessions to locate food in predictable locations.
An animal new to the task employs an inefficient search for food.
After 20 days of training to predict the locations of food the search has become extremely efficient.