Prenatal olfaction

Smotherman, 1987). To conclude, prenatal olfaction is possibly adaptive by preparing the animal for diet preferences, successful suckling, and socialization (Hepper, 1990). 

Although the vomeronasal system is specialized to detect stimuli in a liquid environment, it probably is not functional in utero, at least in mice. Fluorescent microspheres were not taken up by the vomeronasal organ as the access canal is not open yet in utero. In rats, by contrast, the canal is open before birth and the microspheres can be taken up. The olfactory epithelium of the main olfactory system plays a greater role prenatally, as evidenced by the uptake of radiolabeled 2-deoxyglucose (Coppola and Coltrane 1994). Fetal mice respond to amyl acetate and isovaleric acid delivered into the nasal cavity through a tiny cannula (Coppola, 2001). In both rats and mice, the main olfactory system, and not the vomeronasal system, appears to mediate prenatal olfaction (Coppola, 2001). 

The role of the main and accessoiy olfactoiy systems in prenatal olfaction. In Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 9, ed. A. Marchlewska-Koj, J. J. Lepri and D. Miiller-Schwarze, pp. 189-196. New York Kluwer Academic/Plenum. 

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