@article{40c60a9ee2174373ad4c43a845efcc32,
title = "Golden hamster pups adapt to complex rearing odors",
abstract = "Hamster pups avoid certain organic odors as early as postnatal day 3 or 4. Continuous exposure to these odors during rearing selectively diminishes their aversiveness for the hamsters as measured in a two-choice situation. This acquired indifference is stimulus-specific and depends upon the integrity of the olfactory bulb. Indifference does not transfer to other normally aversive odors and is not due to any general impairment of odor detection. Although the test situation requires an orientation response and although bilateral lesions of the superficial layers of the superior colliculus have been shown to eliminate visual orientation in adult hamsters (Schneider, 1969), such lesions produce only a transient deficit in orientation to the odors employed in this study.",
author = "Cornwell, {Catherine A.}",
note = "Funding Information: The sense of smell guides critical activities in the lives of marly nonhuman species. The odors involved may arise from various sources in an animal's environment. Most studies of mammalian olfaction to date have focused on the functions of odors produced by members of an animal's own species which may cue its behavior. Some experiments have attempted to examine the influence of other odors. These studies have usually employed the vapors of pure chemicals as stimuli (cf. Carter, 1972) even though odors produced by such sources are seldom encountered in the natural environment. In this investigation, I have examined the extent to which exposure to complex organic odors alters the behavior of neonatal hamsters, Mesocricetus auratus Waterhouse. Newborn animals were selected because manipulation of the sensory environment at an early age usually leads to greater behavioral change than does later intervention (Hess, 1958). Hamsters were used because olfaction seems to guide many facets of behavior throughout their life, 1This research was supported by an NIH predoctoral training grant to the M.I.T. Psychology Department, and by Grant No. MH-07923 from the National Institute of Mental Health to Stephan L. Chorover. The author gratefully acknowledges the many contributions made to this study by S. L. Chorover, M. Devor, D. Frost and G. E. Schneider. Requests for reprints should be sent to Catherine Cornwell, Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540. Copyright: Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "1975",
month = jun,
doi = "10.1016/S0091-6773(75)90174-1",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "14",
pages = "175--188",
journal = "Behavioral Biology",
issn = "0091-6773",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
number = "2",
}