# Sensory-motor strategies for odor-guided navigation

> **NIH NIH RF1** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS) · 2022 · $1,163,250

## Abstract

Project Summary
Animals interact with the world through dynamic, iterative sensory-motor processes that guide their
ongoing movement. Odor-guided navigation is the basis for fundamental natural behaviors such as
finding food sources, but little is known about the nature of the sensory signals that inform adaptive
changes in locomotion. Here we propose to test how spatial information is encoded by distributed activity
in the olfactory bulb, and how this information is decoded by higher-order brain areas. Olfactory sampling
occurs through ‘sniffs’ – discrete sensory samples thought to provide a snapshot of the current odor
environment. One possibility is that animals ascend concentration gradients by comparing intensity
across successive sniffs. Another is that directional information may be present in left-right ‘stereo’
comparisons between hemispheres. To address this issue, we use new imaging tools to visualize large-
scale activity dynamics over both hemispheres of olfactory bulb in mice engaged in odor-guided search.
We also characterize functional computations in the downstream circuits that decode this spatial
information, using whole cell recordings and optogenetic stimulation to establish rules for bilateral
synaptic integration, as well as high-resolution in vivo photostimulation mapping to measure cross-
hemisphere interactions in the intact circuit. Finally, we use optogenetic activity manipulations during
odor-guided search to test the causal role of cross-sniff vs. left-right ‘stereo’ comparisons in driving rapid
locomotor adjustments. Together, these data will help establish the sensory-motor algorithms that
underlie a key ethological behavior, and provide a foundation for a wider exploration of how animals
exploit sensory cues to navigate complex natural environments.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10531982
- **Project number:** 1RF1NS128975-01
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS)
- **Principal Investigator:** Ian Gordon Davison
- **Activity code:** RF1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $1,163,250
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-02 → 2025-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10531982

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10531982, Sensory-motor strategies for odor-guided navigation (1RF1NS128975-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10531982. Licensed CC0.

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