A mechanosensory feedback that uncouples external and self-generated sensory responses in the olfactory cortex

Sampling behaviors have sensory consequences that can hinder perceptual stability. In olfaction, sniffing affects early odor encoding, mimicking a sudden change in odor concentration. Here, we examined how the inhalation speed impacts the representation of odor concentration in the main olfactory cortex. Neurons combine the odor input with a global top-down signal preceding the sniff and a mechanosensory feedback generated by the air passage through the nose during an inhalation. Still, the population representation of concentration is remarkably sniff-invariant. This is because the mechanosensory and olfactory responses are uncorrelated within and across neurons. Thus, a faster odor inhalation and a concentration increase change the cortical activity pattern in distinct ways. This encoding strategy affords tolerance to potential concentration fluctuations caused by varying inhalation speeds. Since mechanosensory reafferences are widespread across sensory systems, the coding scheme described here may be a canonical strategy to mitigate the sensory ambiguities caused by movements.