Sensory information acquires meaning to adaptively guide behaviors. Despite odors mediating a number of vital behaviors, the components of the olfactory system responsible for assigning meaning to odors remain unclear. The olfactory tubercle (OT), a ventral striatum structure that receives monosynaptic input from the olfactory bulb, is uniquely positioned to transform odor information into beha...

We assessed the influence of different odors on detection of a sweet tastant, and the ability of imagined odors to elicit the same effects as perceived odors on taste perception. The tastant used was sucrose, and the two odorants were strawberry and ham. In the first experiment, participants either smelled or imagined one of two odors during taste detection tasks (between-subject design), where...

All animals use olfactory information to perform tasks essential to their survival. Odors typically activate multiple olfactory receptor neuron (ORN) classes and are therefore represented by the patterns of active ORNs. How the patterns of active ORN classes are decoded to drive behavior is under intense investigation. In this study, using Drosophila as a model system, we investigate the logic ...

Olfaction may play an important role in regulating bird behavior, and has been suggested to be involved in feather-pecking. We investigated possible differences in the body odors of red junglefowl females by using an automated olfactometer which assessed the ability of trained mice to discriminate between the odors of uropygial gland secretions (the main carrier of potential individual odors in...

Odors of biological relevance (e.g., predator odors, sex odors) are known to effectively influence basic survival needs of rodents such as anti-predatory defensiveness and mating behaviors. Research focused on the effects of these odors on rats' behavior mostly includes multi-trial paradigms where animals experience single odor exposures in subsequent, separated experimental sessions. In the pr...

The African termiteraiding ant Pachycondyla analis Latreille (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) organizes group raids on termites of the subfamily Macrotermitinae. Termites and ants occupy and share similar habitats, resulting in a co-evolutionary arms race between termites as prey and ants as predators. The present study explored whether P. analis uses semio- chemical signaling cues to detect potential...

Olfaction plays many well-established roles in vertebrate sensory perception [1, 2]. More controversial is the claim that olfactory cues underlie the large-scale geographic "map" sense used by birds and other vertebrates [3, 4]. The most common procedure used to investigate the role of odors in avian homing is to experimentally produce anosmia and/or block access to natural odors [4, 5]. Althou...

Odor stimuli play a major role in perception of food flavor. Food-related odors have also been shown to increase rated appetite, and induce salivation and release of gastric acid and insulin. However, our ability to identify an odor as food-related, and our liking for food-related odors, are both learned responses. In conditioning studies, repeated experience of odors with sweet and sour tastes...

Infections have been shown to alter body odor. Because immune activation accompanies both infection and immunization, we tested the hypothesis that classical immunization might similarly result in the alteration of body odors detectable by trained biosensor mice. Using a Y-maze, we trained biosensor mice to distinguish between urine odors from rabies-vaccinated (RV) and unvaccinated control mic...