Perception of scent over-marks by golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus): novel mechanisms for determining which individual's mark is on top.
Hamsters preferentially remember or value the top scent of a scent over-mark. What cues do they use to do this? Using habituation-discrimination techniques, we exposed male golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) on 3 to 4 trials to genital over-marks from 2 females and then tested subjects for their familiarity with these 2 scents compared with that of a novel female's secretion. Preferential memory for 1 of the 2 individuals' scents did not occur if the 2 marks did not overlap or did not overlap but differed in age, but it did occur if a region of overlap existed or 1 mark apparently occluded another (but did not overlap it). Thus, hamsters use regions of overlap and the spatial configuration of scents to evaluate over-marks. These phenomena constitute evidence for previously unsuspected perceptual abilities, including olfactory scene analysis, which is analogous to visual and auditory scene analysis.
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA. rej1@cornell.edu
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D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D006224:Cricetinae; D003867:Depth Perception / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008647:Mesocricetus / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D012724:Sex Attractants / Q000502:physiology*; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014621:Vagina / Q000502:physiology
D012724:Sex Attractants