Elsevier

Brain Research

Volume 594, Issue 1, 23 October 1992, Pages 143-145
Brain Research

Research report
Blockade of mitral/tufted cell habituation to odors by association with reward: a preliminary note

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(92)91039-HGet rights and content

Abstract

Association of odor and reward during the early postnatal period modifies rat pup behavioral responses and olfactory bulb neural responses to subsequent presentations of that odor. Recent evidence has shown that olfactory bulb output neurons, mitral/tufted cells, receive convergent odor and reward inputs. The present report demonstrates that contiguous odor-reward pairings prevent mitral/tufted cell habituation to the odor that normally occurs to repeated odor-only stimulation. It is hypothesized that the maintenance of olfactory bulb responses to conditioned odors during training may allow for activation of long-term memory mechanisms.

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This research was supported by NSF Grant BNS88191891 to D.A.W. and NIH-NIDCD Grant DC00489 and NSF Grant BNS9110506 to R.M.S.

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