Noradrenergic modulation of pheromone-induced odor learning and brain activation in newborn rabbits
Sci Rep. 2025-11-28; 15(1):
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-27093-8
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https://www.bordeaux-neurocampus.fr/12353
Ducourneau EG(#)(1), Colombel N(#)(1)(2), Helbling JC(1), Potier M(1),
Duchamp-Viret P(2), Coureaud G(3), Ferreira G(4).
Author information:
(1)Univ. Bordeaux, INRAE, Bordeaux, INP, NutriNeuro, UMR 1286, Bordeaux, France.
(2)Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, U1028 INSERM, UMR 5292 CNRS, Lyon
University, Lyon, France.
(3)Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, U1028 INSERM, UMR 5292 CNRS, Lyon
University, Lyon, France. .
(4)Univ. Bordeaux, INRAE, Bordeaux, INP, NutriNeuro, UMR 1286, Bordeaux, France.
.
(#)Contributed equally
Learning maternal odors is crucial for mammalian newborns, who must locate the
mother’s nipples to survive. In the newborn rabbit, the mammary pheromone (MP)
present in the milk not only allows the pups to locate the nipples, but also
promotes associative memory of neutral odorants. The noradrenergic system
modulates neonatal learning in humans and rodents, but its role in newborn
rabbits has never been investigated. Intraperitoneal injection of propranolol, a
β-adrenoceptors antagonist, blocked acquisition, but not memory consolidation or
retrieval, of MP-induced odor memory. Moreover, gene expression analyses
revealed that propranolol attenuated c-Fos neuronal activation induced by odor
learning in the olfactory bulb and to a lesser extent in the anterior piriform
cortex, but not in the hippocampus, of rabbit pups. Interestingly, propranolol
had no effect on c-Fos activation induced by MP alone indicating a specific
effect of propranolol on neuronal activation induced by associative learning.
These effects were not associated with a change in β-adrenoceptors expression in
these brain areas. This highlights the crucial role of noradrenergic system in
neonatal odor learning in mammals and suggest that the MP promotes odor learning
by activating β-adrenoceptors in olfactory brain areas in rabbit pups. This
pheromone-induced memory provides a great opportunity to explore the
neurobiology of neonatal learning.
© 2025. The Author(s).
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-27093-8
PMCID: PMC12663163
PMID: 41315411 [Indexed for MEDLINE]
Conflict of interest statement: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.