Analysis of biological and artificial chemical sensor repsonses to odor mixtures

Here, we report our findings on the characterization of olfactory receptor neuron (ORN) responses in the insect antenna to various analytes and their combinations. We investigated the relationship between sensory neuron responses to a binary odor mixture with their responses to the component cues. We observed that sensory neuron responses to stimulus blends resulted in simple combinations of component activities. Not only spike counts, but also temporal response motifs evoked by component odors were combined. We then examined how a binary mixture response relates to the component signals in a miniaturized chemical sensor array. The sensor array comprised of two different sensing films: reduced graphene oxide and gold nanoparticle chains functionalized with p-aminothiophenol. Our results reveal that several response properties observed in various types of chemical sensors are strikingly similar. Hence, these results provide an important foundation to develop a truly neuromorphic chemical sensing system.