Summary

cockroaches are able to accurately sense surrounding odors, and then subsequently follow resource gradients towards areas with higher amounts of food. As all ORNs that bear the same receptor, along the entire length of the antenna, converge to a single output neuron, spatial information of odour organisation along the antenna seem to be lost, creating an “information bottleneck”. Taking into account two distinct properties of ORN responses and arrangements, we suggest here a mechanism for gradient detection by a single output neuron.