NOVELTY PROCESSING IN THE MOUSE: METHODS, AND OLFACTORY NOVELTY PROCESSING IN THE LATERAL ENTORHINAL CORTEX

Advertisement professionals, and artists commonly exploit our excitement for novelty, as an efficient means to attract our attention. Nonetheless, neural basis of novelty detection remains unknown. In this project, we study the neural mechanisms of stimulus novelty detection in the mouse. Mice increase their respiratory rate when they smell a novel odor. We will present novel, and familiar odors to the mouse and use this orienting response as a behavioral readout of novelty detection. First of all, we will develop a non-contact method for respiratory monitoring in the mouse, using a thermal camera. Utilizing this method, we will further characterize the respiratory responses of the mouse to various stimulus qualities related to novelty using common familiar, rare familiar, contextually novel and entirely novel stimuli. By performing chemical brain lesions, we will identify a key brain area which is necessary for the orienting response. Finally, we will perform extracellular recordings in this brain area to identify neural responses which are selective to novelty or familiarity.