Odour learning concentration influences concentration range of conditioned response in newborn rabbits.

ABSTRACT: Newborn mammals must adapt to the chemically complex environment by detecting and prioritizing relevant stimuli. In rabbits, the mammary pheromone (MP) emitted by lactating females triggers a typical behaviour in newborns, helping them to locate the nipples, suck and survive. The MP also promotes very rapid learning of other odorants by associative conditioning. In this study, MP-induced learning was used to investigate the neonatal detection and recognition abilities of two odorants very different in volatility, ethyl isobutyrate and ethyl maltol, across concentrations ranging from 10^- 5 to 10^- 25 g/ml. The results show, firstly, that the odorants could be learned even at very low concentrations; and secondly, that a process of generalisation of the odorant quality w

SUBMITTER: Coureaud G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12749707 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature