Aging reshapes odor-evoked dynamics in central olfactory circuits

Abstract

Olfactory function declines with age, and olfactory impairment predicts subsequent cognitive decline and neurodegenerative disease. Age-related impairments in odor identification and discrimination implicate central olfactory circuits in both mice and humans, but it remains unclear where in the processing hierarchy aging alters neural function. To resolve this, we acquired simultaneous Neuropixels recordings from olfactory bulb (OB) and piriform cortex (PCx) in young and old mice during awake, head-fixed odor presentation, allowing us to examine successive processing stages within individual animals. Our recordings revealed a shift toward greater excitation in both regions and reduced inhibitory neuron activity in PCx. Aging also restructured odor-evoked local field potential (LFP) oscillations within and across regions, with strongly elevated beta power and coherence. Population odor representations were less discriminable in OB but not PCx, constituting the clearest neural analog of previously reported discrimination deficits. Single-unit, LFP, and population measures did not collapse onto a single axis using dimensionality reduction, indicating that several partly independent processes reshape central olfactory dynamics with aging. Together, these findings identify central circuit excitation/inhibition and oscillatory imbalances that parallel age-related olfactory dysfunction despite largely preserved odor responsivity.