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First published online July 31, 2009
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 2525-2531 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.032235

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Elemental and configural processing of odour mixtures in the newborn rabbit

Gérard Coureaud^1,*, Younes Hamdani¹, Benoist Schaal¹ and Thierry Thomas-Danguin²

¹ Centre Européen des Sciences du Goût, Equipe d'Ethologie et de Psychobiologie Sensorielle, UMR 5170 CNRS/UB/INRA, Dijon 21000, France
² UMR 1129 FLAVIC, ENESAD, INRA, UB, Dijon 21000, France

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: coureaud{at}cesg.cnrs.fr)

Accepted 12 May 2009

The processing of odour mixtures by young organisms is poorly understood. Recently, the perception of an AB mixture, known to engage configural perception in adult humans, was suggested also to be partially configural in newborn rabbits. In particular, pups did not respond to AB after they had learned A or B. However, two alternative hypotheses might be suggested to explain this result: the presence in the mixture of a novel odorant that inhibits the response to the learned stimulus, and the unevenness of the sensory and cognitive processes engaged during the conditioning and the behavioural testing. We conducted four experiments to explore these alternative hypotheses. In experiment 1, the learning of A or B ended in responses to mixtures including a novel odorant (AC or BC). Experiment 2 pointed to the absence of overshadowing. Therefore, a novelty effect cannot explain the non-response to AB after the learning of A or B. In experiment 3, pups having learned A or B in AC or BC did not respond to AB. However, they generalized odour information acquired in AB to AC or BC in experiment 4. Thus, the balancing of the perceptual tasks between the conditioning and retention test does not enhance the response to the AB mixture. To sum up, the present experiments give concrete support to the partially configural perception of specific odour mixtures by newborn rabbits.

Key words: neonatal behaviour, appetitive learning, configural perception, olfaction, blending mixture, mammary pheromone, rabbit

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