Portside

It’s clear that genes, receptors and neurons all play a role in detecting odors. But much of how we make sense of what we sniff remains mysterious. A neuroscientist explains. Q and A with Neurobiologist Peter Mombaerts.

These computers are not programmed instead, connections between the circuits are “weighted” according to correlations in data that the processor has already “learned.” Those weights are then altered as data flows in to the chip, causing them to change their values. That generates a signal that travels to other components and, in reaction, changes the neural network, programming the next actions much the same way that information alters human thoughts and actions.