Odor-evoked Increases in Spiking Variability in the Olfactory Bulb
AbstractAt the onset of sensory stimulation, the variability and co-variability of spiking activity is widely reported to decrease, especially in cortex. Considering the potential benefits of such decreased variability for coding, it has been suggested that this could be a general principle governing all sensory systems. Here we show that this is not so. We recorded neurons in olfactory bulb (OB) of anesthetized rats and found increased variability and co-variability of spiking at the onset of olfactory stimulation. Using models and analysis, we predicted that these increases arise due to network interactions within OB, without increasing variability of input from the nose. We tested and confirmed this prediction using optogenetic stimulation of OB in awake animals. Our results establish increases in spiking variability at stimulus onset as a viable alternative coding strategy to the more commonly observed decreases in variability in many cortical systems.