Chemical Senses Advance Access published online on June 13, 2007
Chemical Senses, doi:10.1093/chemse/bjm039
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Response Accuracy and Odor Sampling Time in Mice Trained to Discriminate between Enantiomers of Carvone and Those of Terpinen-4-ol
Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA
Correspondence to be sent to: Burton Slotnick, Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA. e-mail: slotnic{at}american.edu
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Abstract |
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Response accuracy and odor-sampling times were used to compare the ability of mice to detect (+)-carvone and (+)-terpinen-4-ol and to discriminate between enantiomers of carvone and of terpinen-4-ol. Except for increased odor sampling when mice were first exposed to the (+)-carvone odor, there was no difference in odor-sampling time or response accuracy in tests of odor detection or in discriminating between enantiomers of these odorants. These results fail to support the suggestion that odorants that produce different patterns of olfactory bulb activation should be easier to discriminate than those that produce much more similar patterns of bulbar activation.
Key words: enantiomers, odor detection, odor discrimination, odor-sampling time, olfactometer
Accepted 2 May 2007