Recognition of conspecific odors by laboratory rats ( Rattus norvegicus) does not show context specificity.

Abstract

This experiment investigated how contextual cues affect recognition of conspecific odors in laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus). Rats received 5 encounters with the same odor in the same context. For the 6th test encounter, all rats received a simultaneous presentation of the original odor and a novel odor. The authors tested 1 group of rats (context same) in the same context as before. For the remaining 2 groups, the test encounter was in a different context that 1 group (context different) had experienced but that 1 group (context novel) had not. A significant preference to investigate the novel odor by context-same and context-different rats, but not by context-novel rats, suggests that odor recognition can occur following transfer to a different, but familiar, test context, indicating a lack of context specificity.

Sexually Dimorphic Effects of Alcohol Exposure during Development on the Processing of Social Cues

“…Tests of social recognition memory involve an initial investigation period and a delay period between the two presentations of the same juvenile. The task involves encoding the sensory aspects of the juvenile, mostly using the olfactory sense (Thor and Holloway, 1982;Burman and Mendl, 2002), and then forming and retrieving a memory. Clearly, sensory processing is occurring during the first investigation period, typically 5 min (Thor and Holloway, 1982;Bluthé et al, 1990;Kelly and Tran, 1997), and if this time is shortened, the challenge to the sensory system to process the information is increased.…”