Pyrfume: A window to the world's olfactory data.

Advances in theoretical understanding are frequently unlocked by access to large, diverse experimental datasets. Our understanding of olfactory neuroscience and psychophysics remain years behind the other senses, in part because rich datasets linking olfactory stimuli with their corresponding percepts, behaviors, and neural pathways remain scarce. Here we present a concerted effort to unlock and unify dozens of stimulus-linked olfactory datasets across species and modalities under a unified framework called Pyrfume.

A principal odor map unifies diverse tasks in olfactory perception.

Mapping molecular structure to odor perception is a key challenge in olfaction. We used graph neural networks to generate a principal odor map (POM) that preserves perceptual relationships and enables odor quality prediction for previously uncharacterized odorants. The model was as reliable as a human in describing odor quality: On a prospective validation set of 400 out-of-sample odorants, the model-generated odor profile more closely matched the trained panel mean than did the median panelist.

Transient loss and recovery of oral chemesthesis, taste and smell with COVID-19: A small case-control series.

Transient loss of smell is a common symptom of influenza and other upper respiratory infections. Loss of taste is possible but rare with these illnesses, and patient reports of 'taste loss' typically arise from a taste / flavor confusion. Thus, initial reports from COVID-19 patients of loss of taste and chemesthesis (i.

Text-based predictions of COVID-19 diagnosis from self-reported chemosensory descriptions.

Background: There is a prevailing view that humans' capacity to use language to characterize sensations like odors or tastes is poor, providing an unreliable source of information.

Methods: Here, we developed a machine learning method based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) using Large Language Models (LLM) to predict COVID-19 diagnosis solely based on text descriptions of acute changes in chemosensation, i.e.

Metabolic activity organizes olfactory representations.

Hearing and vision sensory systems are tuned to the natural statistics of acoustic and electromagnetic energy on earth and are evolved to be sensitive in ethologically relevant ranges. But what are the natural statistics of , and how do olfactory systems exploit them? Dissecting an accurate machine learning model (Lee et al., 2022) for human odor perception, we find a computable representation for odor at the molecular level that can predict the odor-evoked receptor, neural, and behavioral responses of nearly all terrestrial organisms studied in olfactory neuroscience.

Transient loss and recovery of oral chemesthesis, taste and smell with COVID-19: a small case-control series.

Anosmia is common with respiratory virus infections, but loss of taste or chemesthesis is rare. Reports of true taste loss with COVID-19 were viewed skeptically until confirmed by multiple studies. Nasal menthol thresholds are elevated in some with prior COVID-19 infections, but data on oral chemesthesis are lacking.

NeuroML-DB: Sharing and characterizing data-driven neuroscience models described in NeuroML.

As researchers develop computational models of neural systems with increasing sophistication and scale, it is often the case that fully de novo model development is impractical and inefficient. Thus arises a critical need to quickly find, evaluate, re-use, and build upon models and model components developed by other researchers. We introduce the NeuroML Database (NeuroML-DB.

On the Role of Theory and Modeling in Neuroscience.

In recent years, the field of neuroscience has gone through rapid experimental advances and a significant increase in the use of quantitative and computational methods. This growth has created a need for clearer analyses of the theory and modeling approaches used in the field. This issue is particularly complex in neuroscience because the field studies phenomena that cross a wide range of scales and often require consideration at varying degrees of abstraction, from precise biophysical interactions to the computations they implement.

The Adaptive Olfactory Measure of Threshold (ArOMa-T): a rapid test of olfactory function.

Many widely used psychophysical olfactory tests have limitations that can create barriers to adoption. For example, tests that measure the ability to identify odors may confound sensory performance with memory recall, verbal ability, and prior experience with the odor. Conversely, classic threshold-based tests avoid these issues, but are labor intensive.

Gaze stability in youth athletes: A normative observational study.

Background: The Gaze Stabilization Test (GST) assesses vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) function by determining the maximum head velocity at which an individual can accurately perceive a fixed-size visual target. There is limited information about gaze stability performance in youth athletes.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to describe baseline performance of athletes ages 17 years and under on a computerized GST and explore the influence of demographic characteristics on performance.

A behavioral paradigm for measuring perceptual distances in mice.

Perceptual similarities between a specific stimulus and other stimuli of the same modality provide valuable information about the structure and geometry of sensory spaces. While typically assessed in human behavioral experiments, perceptual similarities-or distances-are rarely measured in other species. However, understanding the neural computations responsible for sensory representations requires the monitoring and often manipulation of neural activity, which is more readily achieved in non-human experimental models.

The perception of odor pleasantness is shared across cultures.

Humans share sensory systems with a common anatomical blueprint, but individual sensory experience nevertheless varies. In olfaction, it is not known to what degree sensory perception, particularly the perception of odor pleasantness, is founded on universal principles, dictated by culture, or merely a matter of personal taste. To address this, we asked 225 individuals from 9 diverse nonwestern cultures-hunter-gatherer to urban dwelling-to rank the monomolecular odorants from most to least pleasant.

Transport features predict if a molecule is odorous.

In studies of vision and audition, stimuli can be chosen to span the visible or audible spectrum; in olfaction, the axes and boundaries defining the analogous odorous space are unknown. As a result, the population of olfactory space is likewise unknown, and anecdotal estimates of 10,000 odorants have endured. The journey a molecule must take to reach olfactory receptors (ORs) and produce an odor percept suggests some chemical criteria for odorants: a molecule must 1) be volatile enough to enter the air phase, 2) be nonvolatile and hydrophilic enough to sorb into the mucous layer coating the olfactory epithelium, 3) be hydrophobic enough to enter an OR binding pocket, and 4) activate at least one OR.

The Adaptive Olfactory Measure of Threshold (ArOMa-T): A rapid test of olfactory function.

Purpose: Many widely-used psychophysical tests of olfaction have limitations that can create barriers to adoption outside research settings. For example, tests that measure the ability to identify odors may confound sensory performance with memory recall, verbal ability, and past experience with the odor. Conversely, threshold-based tests typically avoid these issues, but are labor intensive.

Late hemotoxicity following North American rattlesnake envenomation treated with crotalidae immune F(ab') (equine) antivenom and crotalidae immune polyvalent Fab (ovine) antivenom reported to the North American Snakebite Sub-registry.

Introduction: Late hemotoxicity is common following rattlesnake envenomation treated with crotalidae immune polyvalent Fab (ovine) (FabAV). Initial clinical trials showed crotalidae immune F(ab')2 (equine) (Fab2AV) to be superior to FabAV in preventing late hemotoxicity, but this effect has not been demonstrated in broader populations. This study investigated late hemotoxicity in patients receiving Fab2AV or FabAV after rattlesnake envenomation.

The Effect of an Automated Order on Postpartum Opioid Use After Uncomplicated Vaginal Deliveries.

To address the opioid epidemic, physicians are encouraged to identify means of reducing patient opioid exposure. Electronic medical records (EMRs) often include default order sets with automated orders for opioid medications, which may influence how much opioids physicians prescribe. We sought to evaluate the impact of de-selecting an automated order for oxycodone-acetaminophen from an EMR order set for postpartum vaginal deliveries on inpatient opioid exposure by comparing the proportion of patients who received an opioid after an uncomplicated vaginal delivery before and after the EMR change.

The relationship of tidal volume and driving pressure with mortality in hypoxic patients receiving mechanical ventilation.

Purpose: To determine whether tidal volume/predicted body weight (TV/PBW) or driving pressure (DP) are associated with mortality in a heterogeneous population of hypoxic mechanically ventilated patients.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study involving 18 intensive care units included consecutive patients ≥18 years old, receiving mechanical ventilation for ≥3 days, with a PaO2/FiO2 ratio ≤300 mmHg, whether or not they met full criteria for ARDS. The main outcome was hospital mortality.

Transcutaneous Bilirubin Monitoring in Preterm Infants of 23 to 34 Weeks' Gestation.

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the validity of transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) measurements at three sites in premature infants born at 23 to 34 weeks' gestational age (GA) compared with total serum bilirubin (TSB) measurements.

Study Design: A prospective study was conducted at Banner - University Medical Center Phoenix, where informed consent was obtained from the infant's parent or legally authorized representative. Cohort A was comprised of infants 23 to 28 weeks' GA and Cohort B contained subjects 29 to 34 weeks' GA.

Deconstructing the mouse olfactory percept through an ethological atlas.

Odor perception in non-humans is poorly understood. Here, we generated the most comprehensive mouse olfactory ethological atlas to date, consisting of behavioral responses to a diverse panel of 73 odorants, including 12 at multiple concentrations. These data revealed that mouse behavior is incredibly diverse and changes in response to odorant identity and concentration.

Parsing Sage and Rosemary in Time: The Machine Learning Race to Crack Olfactory Perception.

Color and pitch perception are largely understandable from characteristics of physical stimuli: the wavelengths of light and sound waves, respectively. By contrast, understanding olfactory percepts from odorous stimuli (volatile molecules) is much more challenging. No intuitive set of molecular features is up to the task.

Changes in pairwise correlations during running reshape global network state in the main olfactory bulb.

Neural codes for sensory inputs have been hypothesized to reside in a broader space defined by ongoing patterns of spontaneous activity. To understand the structure of this spontaneous activity in the olfactory system, we performed high-density recordings of neural populations in the main olfactory bulb of awake mice. We observed changes in pairwise correlations of spontaneous activity between mitral and tufted (M/T) cells when animals were running, which resulted in an increase in the entropy of the population.

A Quantitative Evaluation of COVID-19 Epidemiological Models.

Quantifying how accurate epidemiological models of COVID-19 forecast the number of future cases and deaths can help frame how to incorporate mathematical models to inform public health decisions. Here we analyze and score the predictive ability of publicly available COVID-19 epidemiological models on the COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Our score uses the posted forecast cumulative distributions to compute the log-likelihood for held-out COVID-19 positive cases and deaths.

Cesarean wound closure in body mass index 40 or greater comparing suture to staples: a randomized clinical trial.

Background: Cesarean delivery is the most common major surgical procedure performed in the United States. Women with class III obesity have an increased risk of cesarean delivery and have wound complication rates higher than healthy body mass index counterparts. Available evidence regarding optimal wound closure is lacking specific to the population of women with class III obesity despite a known increased rate of wound complications.