The ISO settings of olfaction

Neurobiologists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute identify a novel feature of the olfactory system that resembles functions engineered for digital cameras. Interneurons in the olfactory bulb stabilize odor-encoding neural activity patterns when the intensity of an odor stimulus varies over a large range. This astonishing stability of "odor images" is achieved by an intriguing mechanism that is likely to facilitate the classification, recognition and memory of odors. Sometimes the brain solves issues the same way as everyday gadgets do, and we only realize it, as we start to understand the brain better. In a recent publication , Rainer Friedrich, Group Leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, and his team show that the olfactory bulb, the site in the forebrain involved in the perception of odors, uses features analogous to the latest features of digital cameras. In digital photography the most challenging situations are the ones in low light, such as after the sunset when you still see everything clearly but it is getting darker; or when there is a big difference between light intensities, like the Chagall windows illuminated by the sun in the rather dark Fraumünster in Zürich. Modern digital cameras offer two features in these situations: In the first instance you can increase film speed, the ISO setting, to increase the light sensitivity of the camera; in the second case you can use high dynamic range (HDR) imaging, where the camera takes differently exposed pictures of the same subject and combines them into one.