| Title: | "The olfactory pathway mediates sheltering behavior of Caribbean spiny lobsters, Panulirus argus, to conspecific urine signals" |
| Author(s): | Horner AJ; Weissburg MJ; Derby CD; |
| Address: | "Department of Biology, Brains & Behavior Program, and Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Georgia State University, P. O. Box 4010, Atlanta, GA, 30302-4010, USA" |
| Journal Title: | J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s00359-007-0302-2 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0340-7594 (Print) 0340-7594 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "The 'noses' of diverse taxa are organized into different subsystems whose functions are often not well understood. The 'nose' of decapod crustaceans is organized into two parallel pathways that originate in different populations of antennular sensilla and project to specific neuropils in the brain-the aesthetasc/olfactory lobe pathway and the non-aesthetasc/lateral antennular neuropil pathway. In this study, we investigated the role of these pathways in mediating shelter selection of Caribbean spiny lobsters, Panulirus argus, in response to conspecific urine signals. We compared the behavior of ablated animals and intact controls. Our results show that control and non-aesthetasc ablated lobsters have a significant overall preference for shelters emanating urine over control shelters. Thus the non-aesthetasc pathway does not play a critical role in shelter selection. In contrast, spiny lobsters with aesthetascs ablated did not show a preference for either shelter, suggesting that the aesthetasc/olfactory pathway is important for processing social odors. Our results show a difference in the function of these dual chemosensory pathways in responding to social cues, with the aesthetasc/olfactory lobe pathway playing a major role. We discuss our results in the context of why the noses of many animals contain multiple parallel chemosensory systems" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Behavior, Animal/*physiology Chemoreceptor Cells/physiology Food Odorants Olfactory Pathways/*physiology Palinuridae/*physiology Pheromones/physiology Seawater Stimulation, Chemical Urine/*chemistry/*physiology;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineHorner, Amy J Weissburg, Marc J Derby, Charles D eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Germany 2007/12/07 J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2008 Mar; 194(3):243-53. doi: 10.1007/s00359-007-0302-2. Epub 2007 Dec 4" |
