Title: | "Stability and flexibility of the message carried by semiochemical stimuli, as revealed by devaluation of carbon disulfide followed by social transmission of food preference" |
Author(s): | Maier JX; Blankenship ML; Barry NC; Richards SE; Katz DB; |
Address: | Volen National Center for Complex Systems |
ISSN/ISBN: | 1939-0084 (Electronic) 0735-7044 (Print) 0735-7044 (Linking) |
Abstract: | "Semiochemicals are volatile compounds that communicate specific meaning between individuals and elicit specific behavioral and/or physiological responses mediated by highly sensitive and highly specific olfactory pathways. Recent work suggests that semiochemicals can activate multiple olfactory pathways at once, but the degree to which parallel pathways activated by the same semiochemical interact and what the behavioral consequences of such interactions are remains a topic of debate. Here, we approached this question behaviorally, investigating whether rats could be trained to avoid carbon disulfide (CS(2); conditional stimulus) via taste-potentiated odor aversion, and asking whether any such learning would have an impact on rats' subsequent use of CS(2) as a semiochemical cue (i.e., in a socially transmitted food preference paradigm). The results show that CS(2)-mediated food preference learning is unimpaired by aversions conditioned to CS(2), a result indicating that canonical and semiochemical pathways for the processing of CS(2) function in a largely independent manner" |
Keywords: | "Animals Avoidance Learning *Carbon Disulfide *Conditioning, Psychological Food Preferences Male *Olfactory Perception *Pheromones Rats Rats, Long-Evans *Social Behavior;" |
Notes: | "MedlineMaier, Joost X Blankenship, Meredith L Barry, Nicholas C Richards, Sarah E Katz, Donald B eng R01 DC007703/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ T32 MH019929/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ DC 7703/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural 2014/05/21 Behav Neurosci. 2014 Aug; 128(4):413-8. doi: 10.1037/bne0000002. Epub 2014 May 19" |