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Multimodal learning of pheromone locations

Memorizing pheromonal locations is critical for many mammalian species as it involves finding mates and avoiding competitors. In rodents, pheromonal information is perceived by the main and accessory olfactory systems. However, the role of somatosensation in context-dependent learning and memorizing...

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Autores principales: Pardasani, Meenakshi, Marathe, Shruti D., Purnapatre, Maitreyee Mandar, Dalvi, Urvashi, Abraham, Nixon M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7611819/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34407246
http://dx.doi.org/10.1096/fj.202100167R
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author Pardasani, Meenakshi
Marathe, Shruti D.
Purnapatre, Maitreyee Mandar
Dalvi, Urvashi
Abraham, Nixon M.
author_facet Pardasani, Meenakshi
Marathe, Shruti D.
Purnapatre, Maitreyee Mandar
Dalvi, Urvashi
Abraham, Nixon M.
author_sort Pardasani, Meenakshi
collection PubMed
description Memorizing pheromonal locations is critical for many mammalian species as it involves finding mates and avoiding competitors. In rodents, pheromonal information is perceived by the main and accessory olfactory systems. However, the role of somatosensation in context-dependent learning and memorizing of pheromone locations remains unexplored. We addressed this problem by training female mice on a multimodal task to locate pheromones by sampling volatiles emanating from male urine through the orifices of varying dimensions or shapes that are sensed by their vibrissae. In this novel pheromone location assay, female mice’ preference toward male urine scent decayed over time when they were permitted to explore pheromones vs neutral stimuli, water. On training them for the associations involving olfactory and whisker systems, it was established that they were able to memorize the location of opposite sex pheromones, when tested 15 days later. This memory was not formed either when the somatosensory inputs through whisker pad were blocked or when the pheromonal cues were replaced with that of same sex. The association between olfactory and somatosensory systems was further confirmed by the enhanced expression of the activity-regulated cytoskeleton protein. Furthermore, the activation of main olfactory bulb circuitry by pheromone volatiles did not cause any modulation in learning and memorizing non-pheromonal volatiles. Our study thus provides the evidence for associations formed between different sensory modalities facilitating the long-term memory formation relevant to social and reproductive behaviors.
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spelling pubmed-76118192021-10-13 Multimodal learning of pheromone locations Pardasani, Meenakshi Marathe, Shruti D. Purnapatre, Maitreyee Mandar Dalvi, Urvashi Abraham, Nixon M. FASEB J Article Memorizing pheromonal locations is critical for many mammalian species as it involves finding mates and avoiding competitors. In rodents, pheromonal information is perceived by the main and accessory olfactory systems. However, the role of somatosensation in context-dependent learning and memorizing of pheromone locations remains unexplored. We addressed this problem by training female mice on a multimodal task to locate pheromones by sampling volatiles emanating from male urine through the orifices of varying dimensions or shapes that are sensed by their vibrissae. In this novel pheromone location assay, female mice’ preference toward male urine scent decayed over time when they were permitted to explore pheromones vs neutral stimuli, water. On training them for the associations involving olfactory and whisker systems, it was established that they were able to memorize the location of opposite sex pheromones, when tested 15 days later. This memory was not formed either when the somatosensory inputs through whisker pad were blocked or when the pheromonal cues were replaced with that of same sex. The association between olfactory and somatosensory systems was further confirmed by the enhanced expression of the activity-regulated cytoskeleton protein. Furthermore, the activation of main olfactory bulb circuitry by pheromone volatiles did not cause any modulation in learning and memorizing non-pheromonal volatiles. Our study thus provides the evidence for associations formed between different sensory modalities facilitating the long-term memory formation relevant to social and reproductive behaviors. 2021-09-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7611819/ /pubmed/34407246 http://dx.doi.org/10.1096/fj.202100167R Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Article
Pardasani, Meenakshi
Marathe, Shruti D.
Purnapatre, Maitreyee Mandar
Dalvi, Urvashi
Abraham, Nixon M.
Multimodal learning of pheromone locations
title Multimodal learning of pheromone locations
title_full Multimodal learning of pheromone locations
title_fullStr Multimodal learning of pheromone locations
title_full_unstemmed Multimodal learning of pheromone locations
title_short Multimodal learning of pheromone locations
title_sort multimodal learning of pheromone locations
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7611819/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34407246
http://dx.doi.org/10.1096/fj.202100167R
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