Pyrfume: A window to the world’s olfactory data
Elizabeth A. Hamel, Jason B. Castro, Travis J. Gould, Robert Pellegrino, Zhiwei Liang, Liyah A. Coleman, Famesh Patel, Derek S. Wallace, Tanushri Bhatnagar, Joel D. Mainland, Richard C. Gerkin
Abstract
Advances in theoretical understanding are frequently unlocked by access to large, diverse experimental datasets. Our understanding of olfactory neuroscience and psychophysics remain years behind the other senses, in part because rich datasets linking olfactory stimuli with their corresponding percepts, behaviors, and neural pathways remain scarce. Here we present a concerted effort to unlock and unify dozens of stimulus-linked olfactory datasets across species and modalities under a unified framework called Pyrfume. We present examples of how researchers might use Pyrfume to conduct novel analyses uncovering new principles, introduce trainees to the field, or construct benchmarks for machine olfaction.