scholarly journals Evidence for a bacterial mechanism for group-specific social odors among hyenas

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin R. Theis ◽  
Thomas M. Schmidt ◽  
Kay E. Holekamp
Keyword(s):  
Social Odors

scholarly journals Social odors conveying dominance and reproductive information induce rapid physiological and neuromolecular changes in a cichlid fish

BMC Genomics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
José M Simões ◽  
Eduardo N Barata ◽  
Rayna M Harris ◽  
Lauren A O’Connell ◽  
Hans A Hofmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Social Odors

scholarly journals Do females influence paternal responsiveness in male prairie voles Microtus ochrogaster by increasing the salience of infant odors?

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damaris-Lois Lang YAMOAH ◽  
Wilhemina Laryea ◽  
Fiker Fassil ◽  
Maryam Bamshad
Keyword(s):  
Microtus Ochrogaster ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Prairie Voles ◽  
Number Of Males ◽  
Social Odors

Abstract Male prairie voles become more responsive to infants following cohabitation with a female. Exposure to female sensory cues prior to offspring birth may influence male paternal tendencies by modifying his response to infant odors in particular or to odors in general. To test these hypotheses, males were housed with an unfamiliar female or a same-sex sibling for 13 days then examined for their response towards either live infants or infant-like inanimate objects covered with one of three odors: water, infant, sub-adult. We recorded the number of males that retrieved and manipulated the infants or odor-covered objects and measured the frequency and duration of time males spent attending to them or engaged in other non-social activities. Female-Cohabited males approached the container holding infant-odor covered objects faster than Male-Cohabited males, but showed no differences in time spent manipulating those objects. Males in both groups spent more time manipulating live infants than odor-covered objects. However, Female-Cohabited subjects were more likely to manipulate odor-covered objects as well as live infants than Male-Cohabited subjects. Additionally, the frequency of self-grooming in Female-Cohabited males was higher for water-covered objects compared to Male-Cohabited males. In presence of water and live infants, Female-Cohabited males groomed themselves with greater frequency than in presence of infant odor or sub-adult odor. The data suggest that female cues increase the male’s sensitivity to infant odors and enhance the salience of non-social odors.

scholarly journals Distributed representation of social odors indicates parallel processing in the antennal lobe of ants

2011 ◽  
Vol 106 (5) ◽  
pp. 2437-2449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Simon Brandstaetter ◽  
Christoph Johannes Kleineidam
Keyword(s):  
Parallel Processing ◽  
Olfactory System ◽  
Antennal Lobe ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Insect Brain ◽  
Camponotus Floridanus ◽  
Colony Odor ◽  
Spatial Activity ◽  
Neuronal Representation ◽  
Social Odors

In colonies of eusocial Hymenoptera cooperation is organized through social odors, and particularly ants rely on a sophisticated odor communication system. Neuronal information about odors is represented in spatial activity patterns in the primary olfactory neuropile of the insect brain, the antennal lobe (AL), which is analog to the vertebrate olfactory bulb. The olfactory system is characterized by neuroanatomical compartmentalization, yet the functional significance of this organization is unclear. Using two-photon calcium imaging, we investigated the neuronal representation of multicomponent colony odors, which the ants assess to discriminate friends (nestmates) from foes (nonnestmates). In the carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus, colony odors elicited spatial activity patterns distributed across different AL compartments. Activity patterns in response to nestmate and nonnestmate colony odors were overlapping. This was expected since both consist of the same components at differing ratios. Colony odors change over time and the nervous system has to constantly adjust for this (template reformation). Measured activity patterns were variable, and variability was higher in response to repeated nestmate than to repeated nonnestmate colony odor stimulation. Variable activity patterns may indicate neuronal plasticity within the olfactory system, which is necessary for template reformation. Our results indicate that information about colony odors is processed in parallel in different neuroanatomical compartments, using the computational power of the whole AL network. Parallel processing might be advantageous, allowing reliable discrimination of highly complex social odors.

scholarly journals Symbiotic bacteria appear to mediate hyena social odors

2013 ◽  
Vol 110 (49) ◽  
pp. 19832-19837 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. R. Theis ◽  
A. Venkataraman ◽  
J. A. Dycus ◽  
K. D. Koonter ◽  
E. N. Schmitt-Matzen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Symbiotic Bacteria ◽  
Social Odors

scholarly journals Social odors (even when masked) make you more emotional: behavioral and neural insights

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cinzia Cecchetto ◽  
Elisa Lancini ◽  
Domenica Bueti ◽  
Raffaella I Rumiati ◽  
Valentina Parma
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
The Social ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
Moral Choices ◽  
Social Odor ◽  
Social Odors

Moral rules evolved within specific social contexts that are argued to shape moral choices. In turn, moral choices are hypothesized to be affected by social odors as they powerfully convey socially-relevant information. We thus investigated the neural underpinnings of the effects that social odors operate on the participants’ decisions. In an fMRI study we presented to healthy individuals 64 moral dilemmas divided in incongruent (real) and congruent (fake) moral dilemmas, using different types of harm (intentional: instrumental dilemmas, or inadvertent: accidental dilemmas). Participants were required to choose between deontological or utilitarian actions under the exposure to a neutral fragrance (masker) or social odors concealed by the same masker. Smelling the masked social odor while processing incongruent (but not congruent) dilemmas activates the supramarginal gyrus, consistent with an increase in prosocial attitude. When processing accidental (but not instrumental) dilemmas, smelling the social odor activates the angular gyrus, an area associated with the processing of people’s presence, supporting the hypothesis that social odors enhance the saliency of the social context in moral scenarios. These results suggest that social odors can influence moral choices by increasing the emotional experience during the decision process, and further explain how sensory unconscious biases influence human behavior.

scholarly journals Coding of social odors in the hippocampal CA2 region as a substrate for social memory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami I. Hassan ◽  
Shivani Bigler ◽  
Steven A. Siegelbaum
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Social Memory ◽  
Social Recognition ◽  
Reward Learning ◽  
Population Activity ◽  
Odor Recognition ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Olfactory Stimuli ◽  
Social Recognition Memory ◽  
Social Odors

The ability to encode and update information about individuals is critical for lasting social relationships. Although the hippocampus is important for social recognition memory, its underlying neural representations remain elusive. Here we investigate the neural codes mediating social recognition and learning by examining social odor recognition and associative odor-reward learning in mice. We performed high-resolution calcium imaging from the hippocampal CA2 region of awake head-fixed mice, as CA2 is necessary for social recognition memory. We find that CA2 encodes specific neural representations of novel social odors that are further refined during associative odor-reward learning. Optogenetic silencing of CA2 impairs the formation of reward associations. Furthermore, CA2 population activity represents odors in a geometry that enables abstract representations of social versus non-social odors. Thus, CA2 distinguishes multiple forms of olfactory stimuli to enhance the learning of social odors and associations, which are poised to serve as substrates of social memory.

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