Odor mixture training enhances dogs' olfactory detection of Home-Made Explosive precursors.

ABSTRACT: Complex odor mixtures have traditionally been thought to be perceived configurally, implying that there is little identification of the individual components in the mixture. Prior research has suggested that the chemical and or perceptual similarity of components in a mixture may influence whether they can be detected individually; however, how experience and training influence the ability to identify individual components in complex mixtures (a figure-background segregation) is less clear. Figure-background segregation is a critical task for dogs tasked with discriminating between Home Made Explosives and very similar, but innocuous, complex odor mixtures. In a cross-over experimental design, we evaluated the effect of two training procedures on dogs' ability to identify the presence of a

SUBMITTER: Hall NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6299160 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature