The olfactory system provides an especially propitious model for the study
of neuronal correlates of consciousness. Olfactory signals mostly bypass thalamic firstorder
relay neurons and directly affect the olfactory cortex. In the olfactory cortex, the
sparse distribution of odor-induced activity and the selective odor tuning of individual
pyramidal cells resembles the hippocampus place field and place cells. In mammals,
the olfactory cortex gave origin to the isocortex. The realization of information in this
region may play the role of a heuristic process for the realization of information in
other cortices. Binding of information in the olfactory cortex results from specific focal
signaling in the context of widespread activation. Odorants bind to odorant receptors
(OR) on the surface of olfactory sensory cells and activate neural maps in the olfactory
bulb (OB). This process happens through the synchronization of localized tufts cells
and the wide activation of mitral cells, and it fits with the information.expectation
model of realization of information. The OB depicts odorant characteristics in
spatiotemporal patterns. The piriform cortex (PC), considered the primary olfactory
cortex, generates pattern recognition beyond the OB maps. Much like the
hippocampus, PC oscillatory activity establishes cellular synchronicity thorough the
ensemble and across the oscillatory phase. The posterior PC integrates structural codes
into more highly processed representations of odor qualities, considered odor-object
categories. The existence of odor-objects is consistent with the manipulation of
information as a focal aspect of subjective experiences. Active mapmaking realizes
information that transcends into qualia. The process of mapmaking represents a
synthetic de novo phenomenon with a relational origin. Olfactory experiences are
abstracted from the binding of specific molecules to olfactory receptors into structurebased
categories, and further on into odor-object categories. Transitions happen under
feedback input, in agreement with Predictive Coding. The overall process parallels the
hierarchy of abstractions instantiated in the insula. The transition of external
information into organism-centric encoding supports the idea of qualia as conveyors of
adaptive information. The synthesis of low dimensional percepts supports the transition
from the Bayesian calculations of Predictive Coding to phenomenal heuristics.
Keywords: Dimensional Reduction in Phenomenal Objects, Gamma Oscillations
Realization of Information, Mitral Cells, Odorant Receptor, Odor-Object,
Olfactory-Hippocampal Axis, Olfactory System, Olfactory Bulb, Orbitofrontal
Cortex, Organism-Centric Encoding, Oscillatory Coupling, Phenomenal
Heuristics, Piriform Cortex, Predictive Coding Transition, Principal Components
Analysis of Perceived Odors, Realization of Information Across Abstraction
Levels, Synthesis of Qualia, Tuft Cells.
