| Title: | Behavioral responses to odors from other species: introducing a complementary model of allelochemics involving vertebrates |
| Author(s): | Nielsen BL; Rampin O; Meunier N; Bombail V; |
| Address: | "Department of Animal Physiology and Livestock Systems, INRA, UR1197 NeuroBiologie de l'Olfaction Jouy-en-Josas, France. Department of Animal Physiology and Livestock Systems, INRA, UR1197 NeuroBiologie de l'Olfaction Jouy-en-Josas, France ; Department of Biology, Universite de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Versailles, France" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1662-4548 (Print) 1662-453X (Electronic) 1662-453X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "It has long been known that the behavior of an animal can be affected by odors from another species. Such interspecific effects of odorous compounds (allelochemics) are usually characterized according to who benefits (emitter, receiver, or both) and the odors categorized accordingly (allomones, kairomones, and synomones, respectively), which has its origin in the definition of pheromones, i.e., intraspecific communication via volatile compounds. When considering vertebrates, however, interspecific odor-based effects exist which do not fit well in this paradigm. Three aspects in particular do not encompass all interspecific semiochemical effects: one relates to the innateness of the behavioral response, another to the origin of the odor, and the third to the intent of the message. In this review we focus on vertebrates, and present examples of behavioral responses of animals to odors from other species with specific reference to these three aspects. Searching for a more useful classification of allelochemical effects we examine the relationship between the valence of odors (attractive through to aversive), and the relative contributions of learned and unconditioned (innate) behavioral responses to odors from other species. We propose that these two factors (odor valence and learning) may offer an alternative way to describe the nature of interspecific olfactory effects involving vertebrates compared to the current focus on who benefits" |
| Keywords: | allomones innateness interspecific interactions kairomones learning odor valence olfaction semiochemicals; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINENielsen, Birte L Rampin, Olivier Meunier, Nicolas Bombail, Vincent eng Review Switzerland 2015/07/15 Front Neurosci. 2015 Jun 25; 9:226. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00226. eCollection 2015" |
