Modeling of neurotransmitter effects in olfactory bulb

The sense of smell, called olfaction, involves the detection and perception of different odors, and allows identifying food, mates, predators, danger etc. For both humans and animals, it is one of the important means by which they communicate with the environment. This odor-detecting system is called olfactory bulb and is located in the limbic region of the brain. Its functionality is based on neurons, primarily mitral and granule cells, and communication among them. This process is very complex and involves different types of neurotransmitters. The basic function of neurotransmitters is the realization of communication processes between neurons. Additionally, they are responsible for the efficient and accurate processing of the information, as well as for the generation of cellular changes, which corresponds to the memory functionality. In our work, we simulate the main types of chemicals of the olfactory bulb using spiking neuron model: gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) and alpha-amino-3-hydroxi-5-methylisoxasole-propionionate (AMPA). In this relatively unexplored area of research (from computing prospective), we design an architecture and experimentally analyze simulation results referring to available biological research and established biophysiological data. We provide the description of different neurotransmitters and their dynamics. The main focus of our work is to analyze the neurotransmitter effects based on the computational simulations corresponding to the biological environment in the olfactory bulb. The results of our work agree with the biological description of the simulated neurotransmitters as well as with experimental results in the biophysiological area.