Odors discriminability

Petrulis A., Peng M. and Johnston R.E. (1999). Effects of vomeronasal organ removal on individual odor discrimination, sex-odor preference, and scent marking by female hamsters. Physiol Behav 66, 73-83. 

Odor discrimination could involve a very large number of different odorant receptors, each specific for one or a small set of odorants 818 The information generated by hundreds of different receptor types must be organized to achieve a high level of olfactory discrimination 820 Zonal expression of olfactory receptors 821 Convergence of sensory neurons onto a few glomeruli in the olfactory bulb 821... 

Berger-Sweeney, J., Libbey, M., Arters, J., Junagadhwalla, M., andHohmann, C.F. (1998) Neonatal monoaminergic depletion in mice (Mus musculus) improves performance of a novel odor discrimination task. Behav. Neurosci. 112, 1318-1326. 

Forestell, C.A., Schellinck, H.M., Drumont, S. and Lolordo, V.M. (2001) Effect of food restriction on acquisition and expression of a conditioned odor discrimination in mice. Physiol. Behav. 72, 559-566. 

Gheusi, G., Cremer, H., McLean, H., Chazal, G., Vincent, J.D. and Lledo, P.M. (2000) Importance of newly rly generated neurons in the adult olfactory bulb for odor discrimination. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 97, 1823-8. 

Schellinck, H. M., Arnold, A., Rafuse, V. (2004) Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule (NCAM) null mice do not show a deficit in odor discrimination learning. Behav. Brain Res.152, 327-334. 

Palagi, E. and Dapporto, L. (2006) Beyond odor discrimination demonstrating individual recognition by scent in Lemur catta. Chem. Senses 31, 437 143. 

Petrulis, A., DeSouza, I., Schiller, M. and Johnston, R. E. (1998) Role of frontal cortex in social odor discrimination and scent-marking in female golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus). Behav. Neurosci. 112, 199-212. 

A wasp presumably identifies appropriate nests by odor, discriminating among very similar ant-recognition pheromones. Virtually the only chemical information available in this entire set of... 

M. Williams and J.M. Johnston, Training and maintaining the performance of dogs (Canis Familiaris) on an increasing number of odor discriminations in a controlled setting , Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 78 (2002) 55-65. 

J.M. Johnston, J.M. WiUiams, L. Busbee, P. ComweU and J. Edmonds, Durability of Odor Discriminations Implications for Refresher Training , Final Technical Report FAA Grant 97-G-020. Federal Aviation Administration, 1999. 

The anatomy of the northern fulmar s olfactory bulbs is better suited for powerful odor detection than for keen odor discrimination. The periglomerular and external tufted cells are relatively sparse. These cells are important for superior odor discrimination in macrosmatic mammals. The interior granule cells are also loosely organized (Meisami and Wenzel, 1987). 

It seems that the cortex contains a crude "map" that relates position to the type of smell.912 The neural processing involved in the discrimination of odors is not yet clear.912 913 Intemeurons of the olfactory bulb are unusual, being continuously discarded and replaced by new neurons that arise from neural stem cells.908 914 This process seems to be essential for odor discrimination but not for the sensitivity of odor detection. 

Steinbrecht R. A. (1996) Are odorant-binding proteins involved in odorant discrimination Chem. Senses 21, 719-727. 

In a study comparing nine moth species, Steinbrecht (1996) observed that cross-reactivity of specific antisera to one species with PBPs from another species was not correlated with taxonomic relatedness of the species, but rather with the pheromone chemistry. Given that the highly divergent specificity of pheromone receptor cells in the Noctuidae species studied appears to be mirrored by a similar diversity of PBP sequences in sensilla trichodea, Steinbrecht suggested that PBPs participate in odorant discrimination (Steinbrecht, 1996). 

How are such diverse compounds detected and recognized to elicit the associated behavior Several steps contribute to the odor coding, such as olfactory receptor interactions and processing in mushroom bodies, but also including odor interactions with OBPs. The diversity and heterogeneity of OBPs implicates these proteins in the process of odor discrimination. 

L Etoile N. D. and Bargmann C. I. (2000) Olfaction and odor discrimination are mediated by the C. elegans guanylyl cyclase ODR-1. Neuron 25, 575-586. 

The gradual evolution of oscillatory synchronization, which as discussed above appears to be crucial for discrimination of alike odors, may implicate that an initial sniff can only mediate a coarse identification and subsequent sampling is needed for fine-odor discrimination. 

Vickers N. J., Christensen T. A. and Hildebrand J. G. (1998) Combinatorial odor discrimination in the brain attractive and antagonist odor blends are represented in distinct combinations of uniquely identifable glomeruli. J. Comp. Neurol. 400(1), 35-56. 

The triangle test is a measure of odor discrimination. The candidate is presented, in random order, with three blotters, of which two are identical and the third is slightly different. The task is to indicate the odd blotter. This test can be designed to range from easy to very difficult. It is statistically most powerful if the difference between the paired blotters is such that the odd one is correctly identified by about 50% of the candidates. 

Human Body Odor Discrimination T-Shirt Experiment... 

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