Inter- and intra-mouse variability in odor preferences revealed in an olfactory multiple-choice test

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Animal Behavior
• Olfactory Processing

Background:

• Animals exhibit complex behaviors involving sensory stimulus detection, discrimination, preference, and memory.
• Rodents display robust odor preferences for ethologically relevant stimuli like mates and food.
• Little is known about the stability of rodent responses to nonethologically relevant odors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the prevalence and stability of odor preferences in mice using a novel apparatus.
• To compare behavioral responses to ethologically relevant versus nonethologically relevant odors.
• To assess variability in odor choice behavior both across individual mice and within mice over time.

Main Methods:

• Development of an apparatus to monitor nose-poking behavior in mice.
• Olfactory multiple-choice test using panels of ethologically relevant and nonethologically relevant odors.
• Assessment of odor investigation duration and choice stability across mice and over successive days.

Main Results:

• Mice demonstrated significant preferences for nonethologically relevant odors, investigating some more than others.
• Substantial variability in responses to nonethologically relevant odors was observed across mice and within individual mice over time.
• Responses to ethologically relevant odors also showed inter-mouse variability, but were more stable within individual mice.

Conclusions:

• Odor preferences, even for nonethologically relevant stimuli, are prevalent in mice.
• Odor choice behavior exhibits significant variability across individuals and time, even for familiar odors.
• The developed olfactory multiple-choice test is effective for assessing odor preference stability.