Kaboom! The first time most of us hear the sound of an explosion is in the movies. Encountering the sound in the real world – even at a distance – his a Profoundly different effect. Why? It’s all about context. How we react to sounds and other sensory stimuli depends on how they’re presented. We often don’t how we’ll respond to someone we experience it. And the sensation is sometimes quite different from what we expected. So, the brain has to adjust Quickly.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Florin Albeanu explains, “in natural, animals are decided with different rules of engagement. Erefore, it’s not so unusual that you have to act on these Different Rules and Assess What Action You have to take.

New Research From Albeanu and Postdoc Diego Hernandez Trejo Helps Explain How this Works. Their Findings point to Never-Before-Seen Fast-Updating Signals in a Feedback Loop Between The Brain’s Olfactory Cortex and OLFACTORY BULB. These signals may help put odors and sounds into new contexts. The feedback loop may enable an animal’s brain to immediatily adapt to changes and help the animal fin-tune its motor responses accorded.

The study is Published in the journey Nature Communications,

Hernandez Trejo and Colleagues RAN a series of behavior tests to measure mice’s reactions to different smells and sounds. The Mice was trained to associate rewards with one stimulus but not the other –nd only for a while. Importantly, The Researchers switched the rules on the mice see to learn them. That presented Little Trouble for Expert Mice, Albeanu Says.

“The animal is alive to extract this change. Within a more seconds, it’s going to act in a way that is consistent with understanding. Interesting Ex, Convey Information About The Reward Value of the stimulus to the olfactory bulb –rrespective of them being sound or odor. “

The olfactory cortx is the part of the brain that processes smell, Yet it seems to take sound into account. This result tracks with another cshl discovery, which shows how sensory cues become in integrated with each and in the brain. It also rayses some exciting questions.

How Do Reward Signals Emerge? Does this feedback loop also integrate sight and touch?

“There’s a Universe of Possibilites,” Albeanu Says. He’s eager to continue explores Undrstanding of it.