Previous research suggests that body odorants, including anal scents and urinary odors, contribute to sex discrimination and mate identification in European ferrets of both sexes. We assessed the possible role of the vomeronasal organ (VNO) in these functions by surgically removing the organ bilaterally in sexually experienced female ferrets. Lesioned (VNOx) and sham-operated control (VNOi) fem...

The responses of projection neurons in the antennal lobe of the locust brain (the functional analog of mitral-tufted cells in the vertebrate olfactory bulb) to natural blends and simple odors were studied with multiple intra- and extracellular recordings in vivo. Individual odors evoked complex temporal response patterns in many neurons. These patterns differed across odors for a given neuron a...

Firing patterns of neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex (OF) were analyzed in rats trained to perform a task that encouraged incidental associations between distinct odors and the places where their occurrence was detected. Many of the neurons fired differentially when the animals were at a particular location or sampled particular odors. Furthermore, a substantial fraction of the cells exhibite...

Results of the National Geographic Smell Survey were used to investigate the effects of pregnancy on olfactory perception and odor-related behavior. The responses to test odors and survey questions of 13,610 pregnant and 277,228 nonpregnant U.S. women between 20 and 40 years of age were analyzed. In comparison to nonpregnant women, pregnant women rated their own sense of smell lower, more often...

A sensor that detects dangerous odors better than the human nose may be able to "smell" dangerous air pollutants, soil contaminants, insecticides, food pathogens, biological warfare neurotoxins, and body odors associated with illness and disease. Called "smell-seeing" by its inventors, the method relies on color changes that occur in an array of vapor-sensitive dyes in response to exposure. By ...

Traps were set in triplets of one male-scented (M), one female-scented (F), and one neutral (N) trap. Bedding from laboratory-caged, adult deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus gambelii) was the source of M and F odors. In winter, outside the breeding season, deer mice, pocket mice, and kangaroo rats all avoided deer mouse odors and preferentially entered N traps. In spring, when breeding had comme...