Maxwell M Mozell, Ph.D.

Professor, Neuroscience and Physiology
Ph.D.: 1956, Brown University
Postdoctoral Fellow: Florida State University

4218 Institute For Human Performance
Upstate Medical University
750 East Adams Street
Syracuse, NY 13210
(315) 464-4540

Research Program and Department Affiliations

Neuroscience Program
Neuroscience and Physiology, Professor
Physiology Program

Research Interests

The physiology of olfactory discrimination.

The overall aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that the odorant-specific activity patterns produced by different odorants across the olfactory mucosa are projected to the olfactory bulb, and affect odorant-driven behavior in some orderly fashion, thus serving as the basis for olfactory discrimination. The overall strategy is first to document stimulation conditions that can vary the mucosal activity patterns, and then, using these conditions, determine: 1) how these resulting changes in the mucosal patterns project, if at all, as activity changes in the bulb, and 2) how these changes in activity patterns at both the mucosal and bulbar levels affect, if at all, the animal's ability to discriminate behaviorally among the odorants.

Four different approaches will be used to change the spatial activity patterns across the mucosa. One approach will mix two odorants in stepwise proportions, expecting the mucosal activity pattern to change from that given by one odorant alone to that given by the other odorant alone. In a second approach, a given odorant's mucosal activity pattern will be altered by adapting the receptors to the same and different odorants. In the third approach, odorants in homologous series will be presented in systematic increments, expecting the mucosal activity patterns to change. In the final approach, a given odorant's mucosal activity pattern will be altered by changing the odorant's flow rate, flow path and flow direction through the nasal cavity.

The use of different conditions to alter the mucosal patterns was chosen so as to give a more comprehensive evaluation of whether the odorant-specific activity patterns at the mucosa and the bulb are related in some systematic fashion to each other and to determine, at long last, whether these activity patterns play a significant role in the neural encoding of different odorants. A breakdown in this coding process could likely play a pivotal role in a number of human olfactory dysfunctions. Effective treatment most generally stems from understanding; it is time that the relationship between olfactory behavior and the physiological olfactory codes are understood.

Selected References

Keyhani, K., P.W. Scherer and M.M. Mozell: Numerical simulation of airflow in the human nasal cavity. Journal of Biomechanical Engineering 117:429-441, 1995.

Kent, P.F., M.M. Mozell, S.J. Murphy and D.E. Hornung: The interaction of imposed and inherent olfactory mucosal activity patterns and their composite representation in a mammalian species using voltage-sensitive dyes. Journal of Neurophysiology 16:345-353, 1996.

This profile was last updated on 01/08/2007

A short link is available for this profile: http://www.upstate.edu/faculty/?ID=mozellm

Return to Faculty List