Termites often eliminate pathogens directly through mutual grooming, and are thereby prevent infections from entomopathogenic fungi. Our previous study confirmed that the antennae of Coptotermesformosanus sensitively responded to the musty odor of entomopathogenic fungi. However, it is unclear if this odor has any effect on termite behavior. The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects ...

Although most odorants we encounter in daily life are mixtures of several chemical substances, we still lack significant information on how we perceive and how the brain processes mixtures of odorants. We aimed to investigate the processing of odor mixtures using behavioral measures and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The odor mixture contained a target odor (ambroxan) in a concen...

The effect of jasmine tea odor on the autonomic nervous system was investigated by a power spectral analysis of the heart rate variability. We assigned eight volunteers to two groups with either a predilection for or antipathy toward the jasmine tea odor. We tested both high- and low-intensity jasmine tea odors. The low-intensity odor was produced by diluting 20-fold the jasmine tea used for th...

Axillary body odor is individually specific and potentially a rich source of information about its producer. Odor individuality partly results from genetic individuality, but the influence of ecological factors such as eating habits are another main source of odor variability. However, we know very little about how particular dietary components shape our body odor. Here we tested the effect of ...

BACKGROUND The formation of an odor percept in humans is strongly associated with visual information. However, much less is known about the roles of learning and memory in shaping the multisensory nature of odor representations in the brain. METHOD The dynamics of odor and visual association in olfaction was investigated using three functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigms. In t...

To support nipple attachment and huddling, rat pups must learn to approach and prefer maternal odor. Similar to other altricial species, rat pups have a sensitive period for learning this odor preference, which ends around postnatal day (PN) 10 and coincides with the emergence of walking. One characteristic of this sensitive period is that an odor paired with moderate shock elicits an odor pref...

Odor plumes are complex, dynamic, three-dimensional structures used by many animals to locate food, mates, home sites, etc. Yet odor itself has no directional properties. Animals use a variety of different senses to obtain directional information. Since most odor plumes are composed of dispersing odor patches and dissipating vorticity eddies, aquatic animals may localize odor sources by simulta...

Volatile compounds emitted into headspace from illicit street drugs have been identified, but until now odor impact of these compounds have not been reported. Data in support of identification of these compounds and their odor impact to human nose are presented. In addition, data is reported on odor detection thresholds for canines highlighting differences with human ODTs and needs to address g...

The current study assessed the influence of excitotoxic lesions of the insular cortex (IC) on taste-potentiated odor aversion (TPOA) learning. Water-deprived rats initially received a single odor-toxicosis or odor/taste-toxicosis pairing and were subsequently tested, in separate trials, with the odor and the taste stimulus. Indicating TPOA, neurologically intact rats conditioned with the odor/t...

It is widely presumed that odor quality is a direct outcome of odorant structure, but human studies indicate that molecular knowledge of an odorant is not always sufficient to predict odor quality. Indeed, the same olfactory input may generate different odor percepts depending on prior learning and experience. Combining functional magnetic resonance imaging with an olfactory paradigm of percept...