Odorant discrimination by tiger salamanders after combined olfactory and vomeronasal nerve cuts
Publication Type: |
Journal Article |
Year of Publication: |
1981 |
Authors: |
J. Russell Mason, Michael Meredith, David A. Stevens |
Publication/Journal: |
Physiology & Behavior |
Keywords: |
discrimination, nerve section, odorants, olfactory, salamanders, trigeminal, vomeronasal |
ISBN: |
0031-9384 |
Abstract:
Tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum) were trained to respond to n-butyl acetate, 8.9×10-5 M; 2.7×10-6 M. Then they were given combined bilateral olfactory and vomeronasal nerve cuts (NC) or sham surgery (S). After surgery, animals were tested at two concentration levels for responding to butyl acetate and discriminative responding between butyl acetate and butyl alcohol. NC animals showed a drop in responses to butyl acetate at both concentration levels while S animals did not. At the lower concentrations, the performance of NC animals fell to chance levels, demonstrating the importance of olfactory or vomeronasal cues. However, at the higher concentration level, NC animals contined to respond more often to butyl acetate than to filtered air and discriminated butyl acetate at this level from butyl alcohol. These results demonstrate that olfactory and vomeronasal cues were not the only cues used at the higher concentration. The trigeminal system possibly supplied information permitting detection of butyl acetate and discrimination between it and butyl alcohol at the higher concentration. Other research has shown trigeminal detection of odorants at high concentrations but this is the first evidence that trigeminal mediation may contribute to discrimination between such odorants.