Animals learn to fine-tune their sniffs
A research team studying rats found that animals adjust their sense of
smell through sniffing techniques that bring scents to receptors in
different parts of the nose. The sniffing patterns changed according to
what kind of substance the rats were attempting to detect. The sense of
smell is particularly important for many animals, as they need it to
detect
predators and to search out food.
"Dogs, for instance, are quite dependent on their sense of smell," said
study author Leslie Kay, associate professor of psychology and director
of the Institute for Mind & Biology at the University of Chicago.
"But there are many chemicals in the smells they detect, so detecting
the one that might be from a predator or an explosive, for instance, is a
complex process." Kay was joined in writing the paper by Daniel
Rojas-Líbano, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chile in
Santiago, who received his PhD from UChicago in 2011. Rojas-Líbano, who
did the work as a doctoral scholar, was the first author on the
publication.
Their results are published in an article,
"Interplay Between Sniffing and Odorant Properties in the Rat," in the
current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Scholars have hypothesized
that animals may be able to focus sniffing, just as humans focus their
sight to detect a target, like the face of a friend, in a crowd. Humans
are also known to be able to adjust their ability to detect specific
odors with practice when cooking or sampling wine, for instance. Kay and
Rojas-Libano drew from two ideas proposed by other scholars to test
whether animals can focus their sniffs.
Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/
Animals learn to fine-tune their sniffs
A research team studying rats found that animals adjust their sense of smell through sniffing techniques that bring scents to receptors in different parts of the nose. The sniffing patterns changed according to what kind of substance the rats were attempting to detect. The sense of smell is particularly important for many animals, as they need it to detect
A research team studying rats found that animals adjust their sense of smell through sniffing techniques that bring scents to receptors in different parts of the nose. The sniffing patterns changed according to what kind of substance the rats were attempting to detect. The sense of smell is particularly important for many animals, as they need it to detect
predators and to search out food.
"Dogs, for instance, are quite dependent on their sense of smell," said
study author Leslie Kay, associate professor of psychology and director
of the Institute for Mind & Biology at the University of Chicago.
"But there are many chemicals in the smells they detect, so detecting the one that might be from a predator or an explosive, for instance, is a complex process." Kay was joined in writing the paper by Daniel Rojas-Líbano, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chile in Santiago, who received his PhD from UChicago in 2011. Rojas-Líbano, who did the work as a doctoral scholar, was the first author on the publication.
Their results are published in an article, "Interplay Between Sniffing and Odorant Properties in the Rat," in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Scholars have hypothesized that animals may be able to focus sniffing, just as humans focus their sight to detect a target, like the face of a friend, in a crowd. Humans are also known to be able to adjust their ability to detect specific odors with practice when cooking or sampling wine, for instance. Kay and Rojas-Libano drew from two ideas proposed by other scholars to test whether animals can focus their sniffs.
Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/
"But there are many chemicals in the smells they detect, so detecting the one that might be from a predator or an explosive, for instance, is a complex process." Kay was joined in writing the paper by Daniel Rojas-Líbano, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chile in Santiago, who received his PhD from UChicago in 2011. Rojas-Líbano, who did the work as a doctoral scholar, was the first author on the publication.
Their results are published in an article, "Interplay Between Sniffing and Odorant Properties in the Rat," in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Scholars have hypothesized that animals may be able to focus sniffing, just as humans focus their sight to detect a target, like the face of a friend, in a crowd. Humans are also known to be able to adjust their ability to detect specific odors with practice when cooking or sampling wine, for instance. Kay and Rojas-Libano drew from two ideas proposed by other scholars to test whether animals can focus their sniffs.
Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/
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