Brain processing of a configural vs elemental odor mixture in the newborn rabbit.
Brain Struct Funct. 2015-05-16; 221(5): 2527-2539
DOI: 10.1007/s00429-015-1055-2
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1. Brain Struct Funct. 2016 Jun;221(5):2527-39. doi: 10.1007/s00429-015-1055-2. Epub
2015 May 16.
Brain processing of a configural vs elemental odor mixture in the newborn rabbit.
Schneider NY(1), Datiche F(2), Wilson DA(3), Gigot V(4), Thomas-Danguin T(5),
Ferreira G(6)(7), Coureaud G(8).
Author information:
(1)Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, Developmental ethology and
cognitive psychology group, UMR 6265 CNRS, 1324 INRA, Université de Bourgogne,
21000, Dijon, France. .
(2)Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, Plasticity of neuronal
circuits of food intake group, UMR 6265 CNRS, 1324 INRA, Université de Bourgogne,
21000, Dijon, France.
(3)Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Langone
School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA.
(4)Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, Developmental ethology and
cognitive psychology group, UMR 6265 CNRS, 1324 INRA, Université de Bourgogne,
21000, Dijon, France.
(5)Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, Molecular interaction and
flavor perception group, UMR 6265 CNRS, 1324 INRA, Université de Bourgogne,
21000, Dijon, France.
(6)Laboratoire de Nutrition et Neurobiologie Intégrée, UMR 1286 INRA, 33000,
Bordeaux, France.
(7)Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.
(8)Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, Developmental ethology and
cognitive psychology group, UMR 6265 CNRS, 1324 INRA, Université de Bourgogne,
21000, Dijon, France. .
Organisms are surrounded throughout life by chemically complex odors. How
individuals process an odorant within a mixture or a mixture as a whole is a key
question in neuroethology and chemical senses. This question is addressed here by
using newborn rabbits, which can be rapidly conditioned to a new stimulus by
single association with the mammary pheromone. After conditioning to ethyl maltol
(odorant B), pups behaviorally respond to B and an A’B’ mixture (68/32 ratio) but
not to ethyl isobutyrate (odorant A) or an AB mixture (30/70 ratio). This
suggests elemental and configural perception of A’B’ and AB, respectively. We
then explored the neural substrates underlying the processing of these mixtures
with the hypothesis that processing varies according to perception. Pups were
pseudoconditioned or conditioned to B on postnatal day 3 before exposure to B,
A’B’ or AB on day 4. Fos expression was not similar between groups (mainly in the
olfactory bulb and posterior piriform cortex) suggesting a differential
processing of the stimuli that might reflect either stimulus complexity or
conditioning effect. Thus, the ratio of components in A’B’ vs AB leads to
differential activation of the olfactory system which may contribute to elemental
and configural percepts of these mixtures. In addition, together with recent
behavioral data, this highlights that configural perception occurs even in
relatively immature animals, emphasizing the value of the newborn rabbit for
exploration of odor mixture processing from molecules to brain and behavior.
DOI: 10.1007/s00429-015-1055-2
PMID: 25982221 [Indexed for MEDLINE]