Research
on
insect
olfaction
has
made
significant
progress
on a
number
of
fronts.
Recent
advances
highlight
the
molecular
and
biochemical
bases
for
transduction
of
chemical
information
into
signals
projected
to
the
CNS.
Further
work
has
revealed
the
bases
for
processing
those
signals
and
integrating
them
with
motor
systems.
Finally,
work
under
both
laboratory
and
field
conditions
have
revealed
behavioral
mechanisms
that
insects
use
to
approach
or
avoid
important
odors.
Even
in
the
case
of
pheromonal
systems,
these
behavioral
mechanisms
always
involve
reasonably
stereotypical
responses
to
odors
that
can
be
modified
by
one
or
another
learning
process.
In
many
cases
important
correlations
have
been
established
across
molecular,
physiological
and
behavioral
levels
of
analysis.
For
example,
odor
stimulation
activates
defined
spatial
and
temporal
activity
patterns
that
are
characteristic
for
different
odorants.
More
recently,
several
lines
of
evidence
have
revealed
synaptic
plasticity
in
the
antennal
lobes,
which
are
the
first-order
processing
centers
for
olfactory
information
in
the
brain.
This
plasticity
is
correlated
to
learned
recognition
of
the
association
of
odors
to
food
reinforcement.
Yet
there
have
only
been
a
few
attempts
to
establish
a
causal
link
between
any
these
neural
events
and
behavior,
and
these
attempts
have
met
with
limited
success.
Thus
causal
relationships
are
bound
to
be
complex.
The
seminar
will
briefly
review
what
has
been
done
to
link
olfactory
processing
across
different
levels
of
analysis
and
highlight
the
need
for
these
kinds
of
studies
in
the
near
future.
Copyright: The copyrights of this original work belong to the authors (see right-most box in title table). This abstract appeared in Session 4 – CHEMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ECOLOGY Symposium and Poster Session, ABSTRACT BOOK I – XXI-International Congress of Entomology, Brazil, August 20-26, 2000.