Neonatal representation of odour objects: distinct memories of the whole and its parts.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2014-07-02; 281(1789): 20133319-20133319
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.3319
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1. Proc Biol Sci. 2014 Aug 22;281(1789):20133319. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.3319.
Neonatal representation of odour objects: distinct memories of the whole and its
parts.
Coureaud G(1), Thomas-Danguin T(2), Wilson DA(3), Ferreira G(4).
Author information:
(1)Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation (CSGA), UMR 6265 CNRS, UMR
1324 INRA, Université de Bourgogne, 9E Boulevard Jeanne d’Arc, 21000 Dijon,
France .
(2)Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation (CSGA), UMR 6265 CNRS, UMR
1324 INRA, Université de Bourgogne, 9E Boulevard Jeanne d’Arc, 21000 Dijon,
France.
(3)Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Langone
School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
(4)Nutrition and Integrative Neurobiology group, INRA UMR 1286, 33000 Bordeaux,
France Université de Bordeaux, 33000 Bordeaux, France.
Extraction of relevant information from highly complex environments is a
prerequisite to survival. Within odour mixtures, such information is contained in
the odours of specific elements or in the mixture configuration perceived as a
whole unique odour. For instance, an AB mixture of the element A (ethyl
isobutyrate) and the element B (ethyl maltol) generates a configural AB percept
in humans and apparently in another species, the rabbit. Here, we examined
whether the memory of such a configuration is distinct from the memory of the
individual odorants. Taking advantage of the newborn rabbit’s ability to learn
odour mixtures, we combined behavioural and pharmacological tools to specifically
eliminate elemental memory of A and B after conditioning to the AB mixture and
evaluate consequences on configural memory of AB. The amnesic treatment
suppressed responsiveness to A and B but not to AB. Two other experiments
confirmed the specific perception and particular memory of the AB mixture. These
data demonstrate the existence of configurations in certain odour mixtures and
their representation as unique objects: after learning, animals form a configural
memory of these mixtures, which coexists with, but is relatively dissociated
from, memory of their elements. This capability emerges very early in life.
© 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.3319
PMCID: PMC4100496
PMID: 24990670 [Indexed for MEDLINE]