Odours and vertebrate ecology

Ecology of Vertebrate Nutrition

All vertebrates require certain amounts of energy, protein and ‘essential’ nutrients. Dietary sources of energy include carbohydrates, protein and fat. Dietary protein is necessary for satisfying an animal’s protein requirements. Certain dietary nutrients are classified as ‘essential’ because they are required for synthesis or functioning of crucial chemical compounds, yet they cannot be synthe...

Olfactory and behavioural responses of the blood-sucking bug Triatoma infestans to odours of vertebrate hosts.

Olfactory receptors in basiconic and grooved-peg sensilla on the antenna of fifth-instar Triatoma infestans nymphs respond to host odours. Gas chromatography analyses of host odour extracts coupled to electrophysiological recordings from basiconic sensillum receptors indicate that nonanal is a constituent of sheep wool and chicken feather odour that stimulates one of the receptors in this type ...

The ecology of vertebrate pests and integrated pest management (IPM)

Food Odours Direct Specific Appetite

Olfactory food cues were found to increase appetite for products similar in taste. We aimed to replicate this phenomenon for taste (sweet/savoury), determine whether it extends to energy density (high/low) as well, and uncover whether this effect is modulated by hunger state. Twenty-nine healthy-weight females smelled four odours differing in the energy density and taste they signalled, one non...

The Grasping Side of Odours

BACKGROUND Research on multisensory integration during natural tasks such as reach-to-grasp is still in its infancy. Crossmodal links between vision, proprioception and audition have been identified, but how olfaction contributes to plan and control reach-to-grasp movements has not been decisively shown. We used kinematics to explicitly test the influence of olfactory stimuli on reach-to-grasp ...