Development of olfactory-guided behavior in infant rats

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Abstract

Rats as young as 12 days of age chose shavings from their home cage in preference to clean wood shavings. Rats younger than 7 days did not. Once rats demonstrated this discrimination they also chose their home shavings over shavings from the cage of a non-pregnant female rat. Control tests showed that the development of a preferential response was due to developmental changes of the rats rather than a progressive change of the stimulus. The results indicate that young rats discriminate and prefer home odor to other odors as early as 12 days of age.

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This research was supported by NIH grants GM 01789-03 BHS and NB 08902-01.

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