title: The development of olfactory preferences for artificial odors briefly experienced by the precocial spiny mouse young.
abstract: Groups of pups, aged 2, 4, 6, 12, 16, and 18 days of the precocial murid rodent spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus), were each exposed for 1.5 h to one of the experimental odors, cinnamon or cumin, present in the surrounding environment. The odors were not contingent upon home-cage odors or any other reinforcers. This simple exposure produced a strong preference for the exposed odor in multichoice preference tests carried out 48 h after the exposure in pups from groups aged 2 through 16 days. Older pups exposed to cinnamon or cumin at Day 18 did not show a significant preference for the familiar odor. Both experimental odors used were found to be neutral for control experimentally naive pups within a tested age span. These results point at a stimulus familiarity, rather than associative learning in the development of olfactory preferences in young spiny mouse pups.
authors.affiliation: Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, Cambridge University, Madingley, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Janus
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D009115:Muridae / Q000523:psychology*; D009812:Odorants; D012903:Smell; D012931:Social Environment