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Title
Investigation of Sniffing as a Viable Measure of Odor Habituation in Mice
Description
Mammalian olfaction relies on active sniffing, which both shapes and is shaped by olfactory stimuli. Habituation to repeated exposure of an olfactory stimuli is believed to be mediated by decreased sniffing; however, this decrease may be reserved by exposure to novel odorants. Because of this, it may be possible to use sniffing itself as a measure of novelty, and thus as a measure of odorant similarity. Thus, I investigated the use of sniffing to measure habituation, cross-habituation, and odorant similarity. During habituation experiments, increases in sniff rate seen in response to odorant presentation decreased in magnitude between the first and second presentations, suggesting of habituation. Some of this reduction in sniff rate increases was revered by the presentation of a novel odorant in cross-habituations. However the effect sizes in cross-habituation experiments were low, and the variability high, forestalling the conclusion that sniffing accurately measured cross-habituation. I discuss improvements to the experimental protocol that may allow for cross-habituation to be more accurately measured using sniffing alone in future experiments.
Date Created
2015-12
Contributors
- Vigayavel, Nirmal (Author)
- Smith, Brian (Thesis director)
- Sanabria, Federico (Committee member)
- Gerkin, Rick (Committee member)
- Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Topical Subject
Resource Type
Extent
32 pages
Language
eng
Copyright Statement
In Copyright
Primary Member of
Series
Academic Year 2014-2015
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.34730
Level of coding
minimal
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System Created
- 2017-10-30 02:50:57
System Modified
- 2021-07-16 10:38:41
- 3 years 4 months ago
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