title: Trigeminally mediated odor aversions in starlings.
abstract: Electrophysiological and psychophysical evidence has demonstrated that trigeminal receptors in the nasal cavity respond to odorants. Despite these demonstrations of trigeminal chemoreception, it is not clear whether naso-trigeminal stimulation can be used to mediate learned behaviors in contexts such as feeding. Here, we report that starlings will learn aversions to odorant volatiles in a feeding context and that these aversions can be mediated by trigeminal cues.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001717:Birds; D002628:Chemoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009296:Nasal Cavity / Q000294:innervation; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D014276:Trigeminal Nerve / Q000502:physiology*