Table 1:

Effect of different volatile odor stimuli (soiled bedding/urine) on forebrain Fos expression in estrous female mice

Brain region (n)Volatile odor stimuli
Clean bedding (n = 8)Estrous female bedding/urine (n = 8)Intact male bedding/urine (n = 11)F(2,27) (p value)
Reward-associated nuclei
AcbC0 ± 00 ± 01 ± 01.6 (0.219)c
AcbSh*0 ± 01 ± 111 ± 44.4 (0.036)d
VTA*1 ± 13 ± 219 ± 64.9 (0.017)e
BLA2 ± 15 ± 27 ± 21.2 (0.174)f
Vomeronasal recipient amygdaloid nuclei
MeA*2 ± 15 ± 213 ± 36.6 (0.005)g
MePD*0 ± 03 ± 110 ± 27.9 (0.019)h
MePV*1 ± 12 ± 111 ± 35.9 (0.025)i
PMCo*1 ± 14 ± 19 ± 26.6 (0.024)j
pBNST1 ± 02 ± 11 ± 11.1 (0.301)k
BMA1 ± 15 ± 25 ± 21.8 (0.205)l
Main olfactory recipient amygdaloid and cortical nuclei
Aco1 ± 010 ± 413 ± 34.4 (0.036)m
PLCo0 ± 03 ± 16 ± 24.6 (0.036)n
daPC3 ± 311 ± 411 ± 41.3 (0.275)o
iaPC2 ± 29 ± 415 ± 34.6 (0.036)p
vaPC2 ± 17 ± 314 ± 36.1 (0.025)q
dpPC3 ± 24 ± 211 ± 23.5 (0.064)r
ipPC2 ± 17 ± 310 ± 23.8 (0.056)s
vpPC*3 ± 16 ± 214 ± 35.6 (0.027)t
Hypothalamic nuclei
MPA1 ± 18 ± 411 ± 33.0 (0.069)u
VMHvl2 ± 14 ± 28 ± 41.2 (0.329)v
VMHdm3 ± 26 ± 212 ± 32.4 (0.116)w
  • Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM number of Fos-IR cells per standard counting area (300 μm2). AcbC, nucleus accumbens core; BMA, basomedial amygdala; Aco, anterior cortical amygdala; daPC, anterodorsal division of PC; iaPC, anterointermediate division of PC; vaPC, anteroventral division of PC; dpPC, posterodorsal division of PC; ipPC, posterointermediate division of PC; MPA, medial preoptic area; VHMvl, ventrolateral division of the ventromedial hypothalamus; VMHdm, dorsomedial division of the ventromedial hypothalamus.

  • * For each brain region, Fos-IR in response to intact male odor is significantly greater compared with the other two odor groups.

  • For each brain region, the male odor response is significantly greater than clean bedding, but odor groups do not differ from each other [SNK post hoc tests following a significant (p < 0.05) omnibus F test after Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple testing]. The p values for MeA and VTA, which were areas of a priori interest, were not corrected.