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Odor Cues (odor + cue)
Selected AbstractsThe "smellscape" of mother's breast: Effects of odor masking and selective unmasking on neonatal arousal, oral, and visual responsesDEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 2 2007Sébastien Doucet Abstract Lactating women emit odor cues that release activity in newborns. Such cues may be carried in various substrates, including milk or areolar secretions. The present study aimed to examine the responses of infants facing their mother's breast and to sort out the source(s) of active volatile compounds emitted by the lactating breast. Infants (aged 3,4 days) were presented their mother's breast in two consecutive trials of 90 s each: a scentless condition (breast entirely covered with a transparent film) paired with one of four odorous conditions (fully exposed breast: n,=,15; nipple only exposed: 15; areola only exposed: 13; and milk exposed: 12). The infants were more orally activated when facing any of the odorous breast conditions than when facing the scentless breast. They cried earlier and longer, and opened their eyes less, when facing the scentless breast. Nipple, Areola, and Milk odors appeared to be equivalent to the whole breast odor in stimulating oral activity and in delaying crying onset. This study shows that volatile compounds originating in areolar secretions or milk release mouthing, stimulate eye opening, and delay and reduce crying in newborns. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 49: 129,138, 2007. [source] Odor-mediated patch choice in the parasitoid Venturia canescens: temporal decision dynamicsENTOMOLOGIA EXPERIMENTALIS ET APPLICATA, Issue 2 2009Yin-Quan Liu Abstract Parasitoids foraging for hosts in a heterogeneous environment would greatly benefit if they could decide already from a distance in which areas search for resources would be most profitable and to avoid areas of low fitness returns. Interestingly, the temporal dynamics of the decision process in parasitoid patch choice have rarely been investigated. In a Y-tube olfactometer, we tested whether thelytokous and arrhenotokous females of the parasitoid wasp Venturia canescens (Gravenhorst) (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) respond to differences in cues indicating the quality of a host-containing patch and choose more profitable patches. Special attention was given to the time it took females to make their choices (patch choice time) when differences in patch quality were either qualitative (absence vs. presence of hosts and kairomone) or quantitative (various concentrations of hosts and kairomone, and presence of competitors). We found that both thelytokous and arrhenotokous wasps only chose the higher-quality patch based on odor cues when the difference was qualitative. When patches differed only with respect to the number of hosts, or the presence or absence of competing female parasitoids, no significant preference could be found in females of either strain of the parasitoid. In contrast, both the time until females reached the junction of the Y-tube olfactometer (response time) and the time until females decided for either patch (decision time) varied with parasitoid strain and odor treatment. Thelytokous wasps were faster than arrhenotokous wasps in their response time and in their decision time. However, females of both strains responded faster with increasing number of total hosts releasing kairomone. Yet, decision time for patches did not significantly vary as a function of patch quality offered to Venturia wasps. [source] Critical role of amygdala in flavor but not taste preference learning in ratsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 7 2005Khalid Touzani Abstract The role of the amygdala (AMY) in learning to associate complex flavor (taste + odor cues) with the oral and post-oral properties of nutrients was examined. Rats with excitotoxic lesions of the basolateral AMY learned to prefer flavors paired with intragastric (IG) infusions of maltodextrin or corn oil (Experiment 1), although the preference was slightly attenuated. However, rats with large AMY lesions failed to develop a preference for flavors paired with IG infusions of the same nutrients (Experiments 2 and 4) but were able to learn a preference for a taste mixture paired with IG maltodextrin infusions (Experiment 3). The rats with large AMY lesions also did not acquire a preference for a flavor cue paired with the sweet taste of fructose (Experiment 5). Collectively, these data provide evidence that AMY is essential for flavor- but not taste-nutrient preference learning. [source] Oxytocin and estrogen receptor , and , knockout mice provide discriminably different odor cues in behavioral assaysGENES, BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR, Issue 4 2004M. Kavaliers Social behavior involves both the recognition and production of social cues. Mice with selective deletion (knockout) of either the gene for oxytocin (OT) or genes for the estrogen receptor (ER) -, or -, display impaired social recognition. In this study we demonstrate that these gene knockout mice also provide discriminably different social stimuli in behavioral assays. In an odor choice test, which is a measure of social interest and discrimination, outbred female Swiss-Webster mice discriminated the urine odors of male knockouts (KO: OTKO, ,ERKO, ,ERKO) from the odors of their wildtype littermates (WT: OTWT, ,ERWT, ,ERWT). Females showed marked initial choices of the urine odors of OTWT and ,ERWT males over those of OTKO and ,ERKO males, and ,ERKO males over ,ERWT males. The odors of OTKO and ,ERKO males also induced aversive, analgesic responses, with the odors of WTs having no significant effects. Odors of both the ,ERWT and ,ERKO males induced aversive, analgesic responses, with the odors of the WT inducing significantly greater analgesia. The odors of restraint stressed WT and KO males also elicited analgesia with, again, females displaying significantly greater responses to the odors of stressed OTKO and ,ERKO males than their WTs, and significantly lower analgesia to the odors of stressed ,ERKO than ,ERWT males. These findings show that the KO mice are discriminated from their WTs on the basis of odor and that the various KOs differ in the relative attractiveness/aversiveness of their odors. Therefore, in behavioral assays one causal route by which gene inactivation alters the social behavior of knockout mice may be mediated through the partners' modified responses to their odors. [source] Variations in male parenting behavior and physiology in the common marmosetAMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 6 2009Toni E. Ziegler Infant survival and wellbeing is dependent upon good parenting skills. In some species of primates, fathers are necessary to ensure both positive developmental and social outcomes for their offspring. Common marmosets and the related cotton-top tamarin monkeys provide extensive paternal care of multiple offspring and are essential for infant survival. However, we have found significant variation in a father's motivation to respond to infant stimuli. Additionally, marmoset males who are experienced fathers are significantly more motivated to respond to infants and infant stimuli than adult males who have yet to be fathers. Expectant fathers appear to be preparing for their energetic role in infant care by responding with increases in multiple reproductive hormones and showing weight gain during their mate's pregnancy. Male marmosets have been shown to be hormonally responsive to scent signals. Males show increased testosterone shortly after smelling periovulatory scents and lower levels of testosterone following presentation of their own infant's scent. These two inverse testosterone responses combined indicate that paternal males have a flexible system of responding to socially relevant odor cues. Thus males can be ready to mate when their mate is fertile while continuing to be responsive to their infants when these two events occur simultaneously. A male's hormonal and physical responsiveness to parenting may be due to pair bonding between the male and his mate. Examining the variability between males in their behavioral, physical, and hormonal responses to their mate's pregnancy, and infant stimuli provides the means for determining the mechanisms of good parenting in fathers. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The physiological role of hormones in salivaBIOESSAYS, Issue 8 2009Michael Gröschl Abstract The assessment of hormones in saliva has gained wide acceptance in clinical endocrinology. To date, there is no hypothesis as to why some hormones can be found in saliva, while others cannot, and whether there is a physiological consequence of this fact. A number of carefully performed studies give examples of important physiological hormonal activity in saliva. Steroids, such as androgens, act as pheromones in olfactory communication of various mammalian species, such as facilitating mating behavior in swine or serving as odor cues for rodent nestlings. Salivary peptide hormones, such as epidermal growth factor (EGF) and transforming growth factor-, (TGF-,), and amines such as melatonin, are involved in the regulation of inflammatory processes and in the promotion of cell proliferation, and contribute to a rapid wound healing in the oropharyngeal epithelia. Current data provide evidence of the involvement of salivary cytokines, such as interleukin-8 and leptin, in tumorgenesis in the oral cavity and the salivary glands. The tumor tissues express and release significantly more of these cytokines than healthy glands. Consequently, the assessment of salivary hormone profiles may provide promising targets for diagnostic tumor markers. [source] | ||||||||||