# Cracking the Olfactory Code

> **NIH NIH U19** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2021 · $3,763,502

## Abstract

Project Summary (Overall: Cracking the Olfactory Code)
 Sensation drives perception, which informs decisions and actions. Olfaction is the main sense used by
most animals to interact with the environment. However, olfaction remains shrouded in mystery — we do not
know which molecular odorant features matter to the olfactory system and which do not, how information about
these features is recombined to create holistic odor representations within the brain, or how those
representations relate to perception. As a consequence, we lack an empirical understanding of the core
transformations taking place at each stage of olfactory processing, which ultimately lead to perception and
behavior. In addition, we lack a clear theoretical framework for understanding how a stimulus space that is both
discrete and high-dimensional yields a perceptual space that is continuous and low dimensional. Because the
olfactory system is “shallow” — meaning that within two synapses information about complete odor objects is
abstracted and generalized — understanding this specific circuit will also afford general insight both into
architecturally-related allocortical brain regions critical to behavior (e.g., cerebellum, hippocampus), and into
cortical centers that play a key role in integrating diverse sources of information (e.g., prefrontal cortex, posterior
parietal cortex). Here we propose to reveal the computational logic of olfaction by collecting the first system-wide
dataset of neural and perceptual responses to a large, principled set of odorants, and by applying a unified
statistical and theoretical approach to its interpretation. This project will convene research groups with expertise
that spans neurobiology, and will leverage recent technical advances in molecular genetics, neural imaging,
electrophysiology, opto- and chemogenetics, human psychophysics, and machine learning to interrogate all
levels (from peripheral receptors to cortex to perceptual and behavioral output) of the olfactory system. Taken
together, these experiments will establish a reference dataset that reveals the key transformations performed by
the olfactory system, test a key unifying theory for olfaction, and create a community-wide resource that will
prompt new theory and experiment. This work will also have wide-ranging implications for our general
understanding of how sensory information is organized in the brain to facilitate adaptive action.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10200162
- **Project number:** 5U19NS112953-03
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Dmitry Rinberg
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $3,763,502
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-01 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10200162

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10200162, Cracking the Olfactory Code (5U19NS112953-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10200162. Licensed CC0.

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