Part of Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 6 (NIPS 1993)
Christiane Linster, David Marsan, Claudine Masson, Michel Kerszberg
Based on precise anatomical data of the bee's olfactory system, we propose an investigation of the possible mechanisms of modulation and control between the two levels of olfactory information processing: the antennallobe glomeruli and the mushroom bodies. We use simplified neurons, but realistic architecture. As a first conclusion, we postulate that the feature extraction performed by the antennallobe (glomeruli and interneurons) necessitates central input from the mushroom bodies for fine tuning. The central input thus facilitates the evolution from fuzzy olfactory images in the glomerular layer towards more focussed images upon odor presentation.