Perceptual blending in odor mixtures depends on the nature of odorants and human olfactory expertise.

International audience; Our olfactory system is confronted with complex mixtures of odorants, often recognized as single entities due to odor blending (e.g., coffee). In contrast, we are also able to discriminate odors from complex mixtures (e.g., off-odors). Therefore, the olfactory system is able to engage either configural or elemental processes when confronted with mixtures. However, the rules that govern the involvement of these processes during odor perception remain poorly understood. In our first experiment, we examined whether simple odorant mixtures (binary/ternary) could elicit configural perception. Twenty untrained subjects were asked to evaluate the odor typicality of mixtures…

Chemical and behavioural characterization of the rabbit mammary pheromone.

Mammals owe part of their evolutionary success to the harmonious exchanges of information, energy and immunity between females and their offspring. This functional reciprocity is vital for the survival and normal development of infants, and for the inclusive fitness of parents. It is best seen in the intense exchanges taking place around the mother's offering of, and the infant's quest for, milk. All mammalian females have evolved behavioural and sensory methods of stimulating and guiding their inexperienced newborns to their mammae, whereas newborns have coevolved means to respond to them efficiently. Among these cues, maternal odours have repeatedly been shown to be involved, but the chem…

Abdominal odours of young, low-ranking European rabbit mothers are less attractive to pups: an experiment with animals living under natural breeding conditions.

International audience

Functional manganese enhanced MRI reveals deep brain regions activations in response to odorant stimuli in rats

Présentation d'un poster

Configural perception of 6-odorant mixtures in newborn rabbits and human adults

International audience

The mammary pheromone of the rabbit: from where does it come?

Newborn rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus, are directed to their mother's nipples by specialized odour cues. Previous investigations have suggested that these cues are released from the doe's abdominal surface from structures located around the nipple. We tested pups with samples of various cutaneous tissues or fluids collected from lactating females to determine the location of the source of the odour cues. After finding that the nipples from lactating does were more attractive than those of virgin females, we conducted three experiments using skin samples collected at increasing distance from the nipples, dermal and mammary tissues taken below the nipples, and milk collected at different lev…

Traitement central d'odeurs chez le rat vigile révélé par IRM améliorée par l'agent de contraste manganèse (MEMRI)

Perceptual interactions in complex odour mixtures: The blending effect

Perceptual interactions in complex odour mixtures: The blending effect. 13. Weurman flavour research symposium

Odour mixture processing: from birth to adulthood

International audience

Cross-species configural perception of binary odor mixtures

International audience

Perceptual Interactions in Complex Odor Mixtures

The perception of everyday odors relies on elemental or configural processing of complex mixtures of odorants. Theoretically, the configural processing of a mixture could lead to the perception of a single specific odor for the mixture; however, such a type of perception has hardly been proven in human studies. Here, we report the results of a sorting task demonstrating that a six-component mixture carries an odor clearly distinct from the odors of its components. These results suggest a blending effect of individual components’ odors in mixtures containing more than three odorants.

In silico study of correspondences between odors descriptions linked to common features of aromas compounds

The first step of odor detection and discrimination of structurally diverse odorants depends of their interactions with olfactory receptors (ORs) [1], whereas the perception of odors quality results from a combinatorial coding [2], whose identification still remains a major challenge. Recently, Martinez-Mayorga et al. demonstrated that odor description can be successfully analyzed using a metric approach by performing a descriptive analysis of the Flavor Base database (http://www.leffingwell.com, version 2010) [3]. The current version Flavor Base (9th edition, 2013) is one of the largest collections of flavor molecules (4226 molecules). We extracted 3508 molecules for which the described od…

Odour-guided social behaviour in newborn and young cats: an analytical survey.

International audience

Evidence for odor blending in odorant mixtures

Glutathione conjugation of the rabbit mammary pheromone 2-methylbut-2-enal

International audience; In the process of smell, the olfactory signal is initiated by the binding of odorous molecules to olfactory receptors. In the receptor environment,associated events are supposed to modulate this signal.Thus, the xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes, potentially involved in the clearance of the odorous molecules, could modulate the availability of these molecules for the olfactory receptors, and consequently could participate indirectly in the olfactory signal termination. A mammary pheromone, which is an odorous aldehyde (2-methylbut-2-enal or 2MB2) has been recently characterized in the rabbit by our group. The aim of this work was to elucidate the metabolism of 2MB2 in …

Je sens donc je suis : compétences olfactives du nouveau-né lapin.

Qualités chimiosensorielles des mélanges biologiques ou alimentaires: substances-clés, interactions physico-chimiques, traitements perceptifs et cognitifs

Neural activation induced by an odour mixture perceived elementally or configurally by the newborn rabbit

National audience; Perception of odours plays a crucial role in mammals facilitating interindividual communication, food choice and detection of danger, even from early in life (e.g. mother-young communication). However, little is known about the brain processing and perception of odorants in mixtures, which is by far the more common situation in life. To better understand how the brain processes odorants in mixtures, we used the newborn rabbit as a model. Rabbit pups display a clear sucking behaviour in response to the mammary pheromone (MP, the single molecule 2MB2) carried in the milk of lactating rabbit females. The MP also promotes associative conditioning and very rapid acquisition of…

Mélanges odorants : que Bugs Bunny perçoit-il de sa carotte ?

La perception chimique, chez les Vertébrés comme les Invertébrés, permet de s'interroger sur les causes proximales et évolutives des comportements. Les animaux trouvent dans les composés chimiques qui les entourent des informations vitales, relatives par exemple à la prédation, la reproduction, l’alimentation. Ceci étant, très rares sont les situations où un odorant est émis et perçu seul; les organismes perçoivent en fait des odeurs en mélanges, ou des mélanges d'odeurs. Certains mélanges ont la particularité d’être perçus comme des entités propres, à l'odeur en partie ou totalement distincte de celles des constituants; on parle de perception synthétique. Ainsi, le lapereau perçoit dès la …

A variety of common odour cues and (at least) one pheromone shaping the behaviour of young rabbits: a brief survey

Many Common Odour Cues and (at Least) One Pheromone Shaping the Behaviour of Young Rabbits

Sentir différemment la même chose : approche comparative de la perception synthétique des mélanges chez le lapereau et l'Homme

Résumé de poster; Sentir différemment la même chose : approche comparative de la perception synthétique des mélanges chez le lapereau et l'Homme. SFECA 2013

Development of social and feeding behaviour in young rabbits

Age-related changes in the processing of the Rabbit Mammary Pheromone: morphological transformation in the responses

De l'intérêt d'identifier les odeurs qui contrôlent les comportements chez les mammifères

Activity mappings in olfactory bulb of newborn rabbits elicited by odor stimulation using quantitative manganese enhanced MRI

International audience

From 160 to 20 to 1 odorant: steps in a chemo-ethological strategy to identify a mammalian pheromone

This paper presents the strategy used to fractionate a complex odorant mixture into 20 candidate compounds, to finally single out a compound which activity explains the activity of the whole mixture. The joint chemical-behavioral approach will be outlined, and followed by a description of the experiments permitting to enter the isolated key-compound into the category of biologically-active compounds termed "pheromone".

Age-related changes in the processing of the Rabbit Mammary Pheromone: comparison in domestic and wild pups

Odorant metabolism in olfactory mucus: characterization and impact on olfactory perception

Perception néonatale et mémoire de mélanges : des touts détectés tôt

Early development of filial preferences in the rabbit: implications of nursing- and pheromone-induced odour learning?

Newborn rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus, discriminate between different categories of adult conspecifics on the basis of their abdominal odour cues. Whether these cues can support the development of filial preferences has not been adequately tested. Using a two-choice paradigm, we assessed the ability of 3–8-day-old pups to orient selectively to the mother versus an unfamiliar female, either spontaneously or after odour conditioning. In experiment 1, nonconditioned pups roamed indifferently over the mother and an unfamiliar female. In experiment 2, pups conditioned to a neutral odorant while nursing or with the mammary pheromone became attracted by the odorant. In experiment 3, pups that had…

Perception of odour mixtures: the next challenge in flavour analysis.

Short paper dans conférence.; International audience; The olfactory dimension of food flavour is critical to the food identity and typicality. Food odour and aroma result from the processing of complex mixtures of volatile compounds activating the sense of smell. The perceptual properties of odour mixtures have been explored from both the aroma analysis point of view and the psychophysical point of view, thus revealing perceptual effects such as masking, synergy, or perceptual blending. However, considering odorants separately, the classical aroma analysis approach misses the central role of perceptual integration in odour mixture processing. Therefore, the challenge of food flavour analysi…

The responsiveness of young rabbits to the mammary pheromone : a predictor of survival ?

National audience; L’objectif de cette expérience était d’étudier le lien existant entre le poids et la réponse/non réponse des lapereaux à la phéromone mammaire, et leur ingestion de lait, leur survie et leur croissance. Pour cela, 293 nouveau-nés de 30 portées on été individuellement testés pour leur réactivité à la phéromone mammaire et leur ingestion de lait au lendemain de leur naissance (J1), et suivis pour leur mortalité et leur croissance jusqu’à J21. Environ 90% des lapereaux ont répondu à la phéromone à J1. Les lapereaux non réactifs à la phéromone ingéraient moins de lait et présentaient un taux de mortalité plus élevé que les lapereaux qui y répondaient (P<0,05). Cet impact est …

Independence of first- and second-order memories in newborn rabbits

WOS:000291649400006; International audience; The mammary pheromone promotes the acquisition of novel odorants (CS1) in newborn rabbits. Here, experiments pinpoint that CS1 becomes able to support neonatal learning of other odorants (CS2). We therefore evaluated whether these first- and second-order memories remained dependent after reactivation. Amnesia induced after CS2 recall selectively blocked this memory, when recall and amnesia of CS1 left the souvenir of CS2 safe; this finding partially differed from results obtained in adult mammals. Thus, in this model of neonatal appetitive odor learning, second-order memory seems to depend on first-order memory for its formation but not for its m…

Perception of odor mixtures in a newborn ammal

L’effet de l’expérience prénatale sur les comportements prédateurs et défensifs de la seiche juvénile

National audience

Evidence of neonatal memory of odor configuration

The perception of some mixtures of odorants engages configural abilities, i.e. the perception of these mixtures as single odor objects. For instance, data in human adults demonstrated that a mixture of two odorants (AB), one smelling like strawberry and the other like caramel, generates the configural perception of the odor of pineapple (Le Berre et al., 2008; Barkat et al., 2012). Configural processing may be adaptive also for young organisms, to which rapid extraction of chemical information from the maternal environment, highly complex, is a prerequisite to survival. Thus, results in newborn rabbits suggest the perception of a unique odor in the AB mixture (smelling like configural pinea…

Effet d'un apprentissage olfactif hors nid sur le succès de tétée du lapereau nouveau-né

National audience

New insights in vertebrate >

International audience

Expression comportementale du jeune lapin : odeurs maternelles et compétences périnatales

Both the number and perceptual quality of odorants control configural processing of odor mixture in human adults

Both the number and perceptual quality of odorants control configural processing of odor mixture in human adults. 36. annual meeting - association for chemoreception sciences (AChemS XXXVI)

Effets de l'expérience sur la perception de mélanges odorants chez l'Homme adulte et le lapereau nouveau-né

Poster présenté

Inhibition of the mammary pheromone catabolism by a second odorant present in the same mixture

National audience

Impact of age and social rank on maternal odour attractiveness in the European rabbit

Perceptual odor blending is influenced by chemical complexity of odorant mixtures

International audience; Perfumers and flavorists are familiar with odor blending phenomenon and often report that a minimum number of odorants has to be mixed for a good odor blend to arise. Previous studies in humans and animals suggested that a configural process could be involved in the perceptual analysis of mixtures of odorants. It has been proposed that the perceptual blending phenomenon corresponds to a configural perception of odorant mixtures. In the present study, we investigated the influence of chemical complexity on the configural perception of odorant mixtures. Six mixtures including 2 to 6 odorants as well as each unmixed odorant were assessed for their odor quality by a pane…

Pre-exposure to odour mixture modifies the perceptual quality of the components

International audience

Rabbit pups can orient to the nest by smell from birth.

Cerveaux de lapereaux : circuits mis en jeu par un signal phéromonal et un odorant phéromone-appris

National audience

Understanding the odor mixture

International audience

La perception des mélanges odorants alimentaires. Exemple d'étude couplée chez l'Homme et le lapin.

Fos mapping of brain activation induced by the mammary pheromone in the newborn rabbit

The female European rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus, displays a surprising maternal behaviour. Indeed, she comes into the nest only once per day and for a very brief period (3-4 minutes), almost exclusively to nurse. A pheromonal signal identified as the 2-methylbut-2-enal and named the mammary pheromone (MP) is emitted in milk by all lactating rabbit females. This chemosensory cue induces typical head-searching and oral-seizing movements in newborn rabbits usually involved in the localisation of the nipples. The MP therefore appears as a biological signal important for sucking, survival and growth in pups. To date, only few data are available regarding the neuronal substrate which sustains t…

Elemental abilities of newborn rabbits facing multicomponent odour mixtures

National audience

Proportion of odorants impacts the configural versus elemental perception of a binary blending mixture in newborn rabbits.

WOS: 000295167200002; International audience; Processing of odor mixtures by neonates is weakly understood. Previous studies showed that a binary mixture of ethyl isobutyrate/ethyl maltol (odorants A/B) blends in newborn rabbits at the 30/70 ratio: Pups would perceive a configural odor in addition to the components' odors. Here, we investigated whether the emergence of this additional odor in AB is determined by specific ratio(s) of A and B. To that goal, we tested whether pups discriminated between AB mixtures with lower (A(-)B, 8/92 ratio) or higher (A(+)B, 68/32) proportion of A. In Experiment 1, pups conditioned to A (or B) responded to A(-)B and A(+)B but not to AB. In Experiment 2, pu…

Impact of pheromone-induced odour learning on the sucking success of rabbit newborns

National audience

Odorant Metabolism Analysis by an Automated Ex Vivo Headspace Gas-Chromatography Method

International audience; In the olfactory epithelium (OE), odorant metabolizing enzymes have the dual function of volatile component detoxification and active clearance of odorants from the perireceptor environment to respectively maintain the integrity of the tissues and the sensitivity of the detection. Although emphasized by recent studies, this enzymatic mechanism is poorly documented in mammals. Thus, olfactory metabolism has been characterized mainly in vitro and for a limited number of odorants. The automated ex vivo headspace gas-chromatography method that was developed here was validated to account for odorant olfactory metabolism. This method easily permits the measurement of the f…

Olfactory maternal effects: cues and signals promoting adaptive behaviour in infant mammals

Configural vs. elemental processing of complex odour mixtures in newborn rabbits

National audience

Perceptual processing strategy and exposure influence the perception of odor mixtures

 ; In flavor perception, both experience with the components of odor/taste mixtures and the cognitive strategy used to examine the interactions between the components influence the overall mixture perception. However, the effect of these factors on odor mixtures perception has never been studied. The present study aimed at evaluating whether 1) previous exposure to the odorants included in a mixture or 2) the synthetic or analytic strategy engaged during odorants mixture evaluation determines odor representation. Blending mixtures, in which subjects perceived a unique quality distinct from those of components, were chosen in order to induce a priori synthetic perception. In the first part, …

Odour cues and pheromones in the mediation of rabbit female-offspring relations

Attitudes toward everyday odors for children with visual impairments: A pilot study

The question of how the processing of stimuli from the external world is organized or reorganized when a sensory modality is altered or missing has been the subject of numerous studies, although the studies have mostly been on tactile and auditory abilities (Hatwell, 2003). In contrast, olfaction has been poorly investigated in people who are visually impaired, despite the increasing evidence that humans have a keen sense of smell (Schaal & Porter, 1991). Odors influence mood; well-being (Ehrlichman & Bastone, 1992); and social interactions, such as the choice of partners (Herz & Inzlicht, 2002). Emotional and social implications of odors go back to the earliest periods of development (Scha…

Surdétermination de la cognition dans un système social contraint : le nouveau-né et les odeurs

Chapter 5 - Perceptual interactions in complex odor mixtures: the blending effect

The capacity of humans to perceive components in a configural senary mixture and its sub-mixtures

Perceptual interactions in odour mixtures: The blending effect

The odour perceived from a mixture of odorants varies depending on several factors as the context, individual physiological abilities, experience… but also as the perceptual interactions occurring over the processing of odorant mixtures. Sometimes, these interactions which appear during odour information coding and processing, lead to synergy or masking of odour notes (1). In other occasions, they lead to a blending effect. Odour blending appears when a mixture is perceived as a unique odour different from the odour of its components (1, 2). This type of mixture is well known by perfumers and flavourists who daily construct and use it in an empirical fashion. Here, we conducted a series of …

Experience influences elemental and configural perception of certain binary odour mixtures in newborn rabbits.

SUMMARY Elemental and configural olfactory perception allows interaction with the environment from very early in life. To evaluate how newborn rabbits can extract and respond to information from the highly complex chemical surroundings, and how experience acts on this sensory, cognitive and behavioural capability, we ran a study in four steps including a total of eight experiments. We mainly used a binary AB mixture comprising ethyl isobutyrate (component A) and ethyl maltol (component B), previously shown as a bearer of blending properties; in rabbit pups (as in human adults), the mixture elicits a weak configural perception, i.e. the perception of a configural odour different from the odo…

Intégration centrale de la perception sensorielle associée à l’alimentation

Poster; National audience

Le comportement alimentaire

Le comportement alimentaire

Communication odorante et phéromonale à finalité alimentaire entre la lapine et les lapereaux.

National audience

Odorant-odorant metabolic competitions: ex vivo inhibition of the mammary pheromone catabolism

International audience

New insights in vertebrate 'biotransfolfaction'

International audience

Le nez sous influence : une histoire animale

Organisateur : Loïc Briand (CSGA) ; évènement sous l'égide de la société des Neurosciences; absent

Comportement alimentaire

National audience

Comportement alimentaire olfacto-guidé du nouveau-né : la lapine et le lapereau

http://www.congres-p2t.fr/

Préférences sociales chez le lapin en période de sevrage: impact des apprentissages olfactifs néonatals

Sensory preconditioning leads to separate odor memories in newborn rabbits

Poster

Sensory preconditioning in newborn rabbits: from common to distinct odor memories.

Brief Communication; International audience; This study evaluated whether olfactory preconditioning is functional in newborn rabbits and based on joined or independent memory of odorants. First, after exposure to odorants A+B, the conditioning of A led to high responsiveness to odorant B. Second, responsiveness to B persisted after amnesia of A. Third, preconditioning was also functional with two overlapping pairs of odorants (A+B and B+C) and amnesia of one odorant did not affect memory of the others. Thus, incidental pairing of odorants allows reinforcement of one odorant to implicitly reinforce the others, the bond then vanishes, and the memory of each element becomes independent.

Effects of manganese injected into rat nostrils: implications for in vivo functional study of olfaction using MEMRI.

WOS: 000298212500007; International audience; Manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) is a powerful tool for visualizing neuronal pathways and mapping brain activity modulation. A potential drawback of MEMRI lies in the toxic effects of manganese (Mn), which also depend on its administration route. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of Mn doses injected into the nostrils of rats on both olfactory perception and MRI contrast enhancement. For this purpose, doses in the range 0-8 μmol MnCl(2) were tested. Behavioral items were quantified with and without odor stimulation during the first 2 h following Mn injection. The MRI study was performed after 16 h of intermitt…

When the nose must remain responsive: glutathione conjugation of the mammary pheromone in the newborn rabbit

In insects, xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes were demonstrated to regulate pheromones inactivation, clearing them from the olfactory periphery and keeping receptors ready for stimulation renewal. Here, we investigate whether similar processes could occur in mammals, focusing on the pheromonal communication between female rabbits and their newborns. Lactating rabbits emit in their milk a volatile aldehyde, 2-methylbut-2-enal, that elicits searching-grasping in neonates; called the mammary pheromone (MP), it is critical for pups which are constrained to find nipples within the 5 min of daily nursing. For newborns, it is thus essential to remain sensitive to this odorant during the whole nursin…

Activation cérébrale phéromone-induite ou olfacto-apprise chez le lapin nouveau-né

Pheromone and pheromone-induced odour learning in the rabbit under development.

National audience

Perception of blending mixtures at different ages - A pilot study in humans

Olfactory configural and elemental abilities in adults with autism

Olfactory configural and elemental abilities in adults with autism. Clinical chemosensation 2014

Apprentissage appéritif et consolidation mnésique chez le lapin nouveau-né

The Rabbit Mammary Pheromone: Comparative activity in breeding and semi-wild conditions as a function of age

Human awareness and uses of odor cues in everyday life: Results from a questionnaire study in children

The Children's Olfactory Behavior in Everyday Life questionnaire was developed to assess attention to, and uses of, odors in real-life situations, and to evaluate individual variations. The tool comprises 16 items prompting self-reports of active seeking, awareness and affective reactivity to odors of food, people and the environment. Children (102 girls, 113 boys) aged 6–10 years participated in the study. The results revealed that girls were significantly more olfaction-oriented than boys, especially towards the odors of people, self and the environment. An increasing ability of children to describe the odor facets of their perceptual world was found between 6 and 10 years, partly due to …

Spontaneous brain processing of the mammary pheromone in rabbit neonates prior to milk intake.

International audience; Chemical signals play a critical role in interindividual communication, including mother-young relationships. Detecting odor cues released by the mammary area is vital to the newborn's survival. European rabbit females secret a mammary pheromone (MP) in their milk, which releases sucking related orocephalic movements in newborns. Pups spontaneously display these typical movements at birth, independently of any perinatal learning. Our previous Fos mapping study (Charra et al., 2012) performed in 4-day-old rabbits showed that the MP activated a network of brain regions involved in osmoregulation, odor processing and arousal in comparison with a control odor. However, a…

Comparison of rabbit pup responsiveness to the mammary pheromone in breeding and semi-wild conditions.

International audience

Apprendre vite et percevoir beaucoup

Mammary olfactory signalisation in females and odor processing in neonates: ways evolved by rabbits and humans

International audience; Mammalian females have long been known to release olfactory attraction in their offspring. Mammary odor cues control infant state, attention and directional responses, delay distress responses, stimulate breathing and positive oral actions, and finally can boost learning. Here, we survey female-offspring odor communication in two mammalian species - European rabbits and humans - taken as representatives of evolutionary extremes in terms of structure and dynamics of mother-infant relations, and level of neonatal autonomy. Despite these early psychobiological differences, females in both species have evolved mammary structures combining multiple sources of endogenous a…

Pheromone-induced odor learning modifies Fos expression in the newborn rabbit brain.

Research report; International audience; Associative learning contributes crucially to adjust the behavior of neonates to the permanently changing environment. In the European rabbit, the mammary pheromone (MP) excreted in milk triggers sucking behavior in newborns, and additionally promotes very rapid learning of initially neutral odor cues. Such stimuli become then as active as the MP itself to elicit the orocephalic motor responses involved in suckling. In this context, the rabbit is an interesting model to address the question of brain circuits early engaged by learning and memory. Here, we evaluated the brain activation (olfactory bulb and central regions) induced in 4-day-old pups by …

Neonatal representation of odour objects: distinct memories of the whole and its parts

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…

Manganese-ehanced fMRI in olfaction: optimisation of Mn dose with minimal deleterious effects upon odour induced behaviour in rats

Dissimilarity of blending mixture in an olfactory space

Dissimilarity of blending mixture in an olfactory space. Human chemosensation meeting

Brain anatomy of the 4‐day‐old European rabbit

International audience; The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a widely used model in fundamental, medical and veterinary neurosciences. Besides investigations in adults, rabbit pups are relevant to study perinatal neurodevelopment and early behaviour. To date, the rabbit is also the only species in which a pheromone - the mammary pheromone (MP) - emitted by lactating females and active on neonatal adaptation has been described. The MP is crucial since it contributes directly to nipple localisation and oral seizing in neonates, i.e. to their sucking success. It may also be one of the non-photic cues arising from the mother, which stimulates synchronisation of the circadian system du…

Composés-clés de la flaveur dans des mélanges modèles complexes : Perception et apprentissage

 ; absent

De l'intérêt d'identifier des odeurs qui contrôlent les comportements chez les mammifères

Newborn rabbit responsiveness to the mammary pheromone is concentration-dependent.

The effect of the intensity of odour signals has rarely been investigated in the regulation of odour-guided behaviour in young mammals. This series of experiments used the mammary pheromone (MP) of the female rabbit to assess the influence of stimulus concentration on neonatal pup responsiveness. The MP is a single compound isolated from rabbit milk that releases in pups the typical head searching and oral seizing behaviour. The pups (n = 621) were exposed to graded concentrations of the MP in bioassays varying in stimulus delivery conditions. Experiment 1 demonstrated that in aqueous dilutions the MP efficiently elicits behavioural responses only within a limited range of concentrations (f…

Pheromone-induced olfactory memory in newborn rabbits: Involvement of consolidation and reconsolidation processes.

Mammary pheromone (MP)-induced odor memory is a new model of appetitive memory functioning early in a mammal, the newborn rabbit. Some properties of this associative memory are analyzed by the use of anisomycin as an amnesic agent. Long-term memory (LTM) was impaired by anisomycin delivered immediately, but not 4 h after either acquisition or reactivation. Thus, the results suggest that this form of neonatal memory requires both consolidation and reconsolidation. By extending these notions to appetitive memory, the results reveal that consolidation and reconsolidation processes are characteristics of associative memories of positive events not only in the adult, but also in the newborn.

Elemental or configural perception of an odour mixture induces differences in neural activation in the newborn rabbit

International audience

Is the superior temporal sulcus involved in the reinforced configural processing of a binary odor mixture?

Is the superior temporal sulcus involved in the reinforced configural processing of a binary odor mixture?. 35. annual meeting - association for chemoreception sciences (AChemS)

The reactivity of neonatal rabbits to the mammary pheromone as a probe for viability

International audience; Newborn rabbits depend on a daily nursing interaction with the mother to gain milk and to survive. During this interaction, they localise and seize the nipples displaying a typical behaviour triggered by maternal odour cues. The mammary pheromone constitutes such a signal in domestic rabbits: it elicits sucking-related movements in more than 90% of the pups. However, some newborns remain unresponsive to the presentation of the pheromone, even pups apparently healthy and highly motivated to suck. The main goal of the present study was therefore to explore the link between the unresponsiveness of rabbit pups to the mammary pheromone and their growth and survival in bre…

Newborn rabbits perceive odour mixtures elementally or configurally according to theri experience

Features of multicomponent odour mixtures leading to blending effect in humans

International audience

Perception de mélanges d'odorants, étude psychophysique et comportementale chez l'Homme et le mammifère nouveau-né

Perception de mélanges d'odorants, étude psychophysique et comportementale chez l'Homme et le mammifère nouveau-né. Sens & Co PhD

Impact of pre-exposure on the perception of odorant mixtures in humans

International audience

Is the superior temporal sulcus involved in the reinforced configural processing of a binary odor mixture?

Is the superior temporal sulcus involved in the reinforced configural processing of a binary odor mixture?. 35. annual meeting - association for chemoreception sciences (AChemS)

A single key-odorant accounts for the pheromonal effect of rabbit milk : Further test of the mammary pheromone's activity against a wide sample of volatiles from milk.

In the rabbit, lactating females emit a volatile compound in milk, the mammary pheromone (MP), that triggers rooting for the nipple and its grasping in pups. Previous studies have shown that the MP seems to act selectively, in terms both of intensity and quality. Here, we aimed to add new evidence to these properties of the MP. Newborn rabbits (n=825) were submitted to an oral activation test allowing to measure their searching/grasping responses towards different stimuli. In Experiment 1 we assessed whether pups respond to the MP in an intensity-dependent manner. In Experiment 2 we assessed the activity of 20 volatiles previously identified in rabbit milk, other than the MP, which were nev…

Les signaux olfactifs maternels : Importance adaptative pour le jeune mammifère

Un modèle prédisposé d'induction de l'apprentissage chez le jeune mammifère: analyses éthologiques, neurophysiologiques et computationnelles

Mammary pheromone-induced odour learning influences sucking behaviour and milk intake in the newborn rabbit

Newborn rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus, locate their mother's nipples through typical orocephalic movements elicited by odour stimuli, in particular by the mammary pheromone (MP). The MP also promotes neonatal odour learning: after single pairing with the MP, an initially neutral odorant becomes able to elicit sucking-related head-searching/oral-grasping movements. However, the behavioural significance of the MP-induced odour learning remains poorly understood. We carried out three experiments to explore its influence on milk intake and compare its consequences with those resulting from nursing-induced conditioning. First, pups conditioned to an odorant by pairing with the MP on postnatal d…

Perception analytique et synthétique des mélanges d’odorants : études combinées chez le lapereau nouveau-né et l’Homme adulte

National audience

A mammalian pheromone that carry both releasing and reinforcing functions

IV Symposium des German-Brain-Endocrine-Immune-Network

Pheromonal odour learning and brain activation in the newborn rabbit.

Brain processing of the mammary pheromone in newborn rabbits.

International audience; Chemosignals strongly contribute to social interactions in mammals, including mother-young relationships. In the European rabbit, a volatile compound emitted by lactating females in milk, the 2-methylbut-2-enal, has been isolated. Carrying the properties of a pheromone, in particular the spontaneous ability to release critical sucking-related movements in newborns, it has been called the mammary pheromone (MP). Lesion of the vomeronasal organ and preliminary 2-deoxyglucose data suggested that the MP could be processed by the main olfactory system. However, the neuronal substrate that sustains the MP-induced response of neonates remained unknown. Here, we evaluated Fo…

Le lapin: du comportement à la molécule, des résultats aux projets