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Front Neurosci

Title:		"Avoidance and contextual learning induced by a kairomone, a pheromone and a common odorant in female CD1 mice"
Author(s):		Fortes-Marco L; Lanuza E; Martinez-Garcia F; Agustin-Pavon C;
Address:		"Unitat Pre-departamental de Medicina, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universitat Jaume I Castello de la Plana, Spain ; Departament de Biologia Cel.lular, Facultat de Ciencies Biologiques, Universitat de Valencia Valencia, Spain. Departament de Biologia Cel.lular, Facultat de Ciencies Biologiques, Universitat de Valencia Valencia, Spain. Unitat Pre-departamental de Medicina, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universitat Jaume I Castello de la Plana, Spain"
Journal Title:		Front Neurosci
Year:		2015
Volume:		20151006
Issue:
Page Number:		336 -
DOI:		10.3389/fnins.2015.00336
ISSN/ISBN:		1662-4548 (Print) 1662-453X (Electronic) 1662-453X (Linking)
Abstract:		"Chemosignals mediate both intra- and inter-specific communication in most mammals. Pheromones elicit stereotyped reactions in conspecifics, whereas kairomones provoke a reaction in an allospecific animal. For instance, predator kairomones elicit anticipated defensive responses in preys. The aim of this work was to test the behavioral responses of female mice to two chemosignals: 2-heptanone (2-HP), a putative alarm pheromone, and 2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT), a fox-derived putative kairomone, widely used to investigate fear and anxiety in rodents. The banana-like odorant isoamyl acetate (IA), unlikely to act as a chemosignal, served as a control odorant. We first presented increasing amounts of these odorants in consecutive days, in a test box in which mice could explore or avoid them. Female mice avoided the highest amounts of all three compounds, with TMT and IA eliciting avoidance at lower amounts (3.8 pmol and 0.35 mumol, respectively) than 2-HP (35 mumol). All three compounds induced minimal effects in global locomotion and immobility in this set up. Further, mice detected 3.5 pmol of TMT and IA in a habituation-dishabituation test, so avoidance of IA started well beyond the detection threshold. Finally, both TMT and IA, but not 2-HP, induced conditioned place avoidance and increased immobility in the neutral compartment during a contextual memory test. These data suggest that intense odors can induce contextual learning irrespective of their putative biological significance. Our results support that synthetic predator-related compounds (like TMT) or other intense odorants are useful to investigate the neurobiological basis of emotional behaviors in rodents. Since intense odorants unlikely to act as chemosignals can elicit similar behavioral reactions than chemosignals, we stress the importance of using behavioral measures in combination with other physiological (e.g., hormonal levels) or neural measures (e.g., immediate early gene expression) to establish the ethological significance of odorants"
Keywords:		"2, 4, 5-trimethylthiazoline 2-heptanone aversion isoamyl acetate kairomones pheromones place conditioning vomeronasal;"
Notes:		"PubMed-not-MEDLINEFortes-Marco, Lluis Lanuza, Enrique Martinez-Garcia, Fernando Agustin-Pavon, Carmen eng Switzerland 2015/10/27 Front Neurosci. 2015 Oct 6; 9:336. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00336. eCollection 2015"