The Wire Is Not the Territory: Understanding Representational Drift in Olfaction With Dynamical Systems Theory

Representational drift is a phenomenon of increasing interest in the cognitive and neural sciences. While investigations are ongoing for other sensory cortices, recent research has demonstrated the pervasiveness in which it occurs in the piriform cortex for olfaction. This gradual weakening and shifting of stimulus‐responsive cells has critical implications for sensory stimulus–response models and perceptual decision‐making. While representational drift may complicate traditional sensory processing models, it could be seen as an advantage in olfaction, as animals live in environments with constantly changing and unpredictable chemical information. Non‐topographical encoding in the olfactory system may aid in contextualizing reactions to promiscuous odor stimuli, facilitating adaptive animal behavior and survival. This article suggests that traditional models of stimulus–(neural) response mapping in olfaction may need to be reevaluated and instead motivates the use of dynamical systems theory as a methodology and conceptual framework. An increasing amount of evidence surrounding the phenomena of representational drift and non‐topographical encoding in the neural responses to odors forces us to rethink traditional sensory processing models. By using the tools of dynamical systems theory, we might find that this drift may be more than a quirk of nature but a vital, adaptive mechanism in a world awash with fluctuating chemical information.