Antennal Lobe Projection Patterns of Pheromone-Specific Olfactory Receptor Neurons in Moths

Abstract

The high sensitivity and specificity of pheromone-detecting olfactory receptor neurons, present on the antennae of the male moth, have attracted much interest as a model of chemoreception. In numerous publications, beginning with the pioneering studies of Professor Dietrich Schneider (e.g., Schneider 1962), male antennal sensory neurons have been shown to be able to detect minute amounts of the female produced sex pheromone. Also the morphology of the male olfactory sensilla has been scrutinized, showing how they are organized to allow passage of odor molecules into their internal dendritic processes (Steinbrecht 1987 and references therein).