Neural circuit computation: complex patterns in the olfactory bulb.

The olfactory bulb principal neurons show complex responses during olfactory stimulation that are characterized by periods of profound suppression, temporal patterns of activity, and nonmonotonic intensity response functions. The model presented here suggests that these features may arise from changing spatial patterns of activity across the bulbar surface due to restricted (chemotopic) activation in bulbar glomeruli. The model is based on a simplified version of the bulbar neural circuit as it is presently known from anatomical and physiological investigations and provides explanations for several anomalous bulbar response patterns.